Rajnath Singh addressing a press conference on Friday
Asked about "Love Jihad", a term currently in wide circulation in the BJP and its allied groups, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said: "What is that? I need to understand its definition."
Mr Singh's response raised eyebrows a day after his party MP Yogi Adityanath, a combative voice against "Love Jihad" and the BJP's star campaigner for by-elections tomorrow in Uttar Pradesh, was reprimanded by the Election Commission for a hate speech.
Adityanath, a four-time BJP MP from Gorakhpur, has described as doctored a video in which he purportedly asks supporters to convert 100 Muslim women through marriage every time a Muslim man marries a Hindu.
"Love Jihad" is a term used by right-wing groups to describe what they consider an Islamist strategy to seduce and convert Hindu women. The BJP avoided the term last month when it adopted the subject of "forced" conversions as a campaign issue for the by-polls.
But leaders like Adityanath have not been so guarded while addressing rallies in UP.
In Madhya Pradesh, BJP legislator Usha Thakur has called for a ban on entry of Muslims during the "Garba" dance festival in a few weeks. She alleges that young Muslim men use the event to zero in on girls whom they "trap into marriage" and convert.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which is linked to the BJP through its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has allegedly circulated pamphlets on "Love Jihad" in Vadodara in Gujarat, the constituency vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he chose to retain the Varanasi seat.
Ahead of the Saturday by-polls in nine states including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, pro-Hindu groups linked to RSS have been even more vocal against "Love Jihad".