Hindu Yuva Vahini wants to revive anti-Romeo squads in Gujarat

Hindu Yuva Vahini, floated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in 2002, is planning to expand its base in Gujarat and wants the state BJP government to revive the 'anti-Romeo squads'.
The BJP-led state government had for the first time formed such squads in Gujarat in 1998, but they were largely dormant.
Anti-Romeo squads were recently introduced by the Yogi Adityanath government in UP to check incidents of eve-teasing, indecent behaviour and passing of lewd comments at women and girls.
The right-wing outfit aims to induct over six lakh members within 6 months and plans to spread awareness about the 'true Hindu culture' as well as to keep a check on conversion, incidents of love jihad and cow slaughter.

Though the non-political outfit was present in Gujarat since last three years, it was in a dormant state having only around 11,000 registered members, Hindu Yuva Vahini's (HYV) Gujarat president Shailendra Pathak said.
On their plans for the state, Pathak told reporters here that the organisation would now play an active role in Gujarat on "key issues concerning Hindus, such as love jihad, cow protection and religious conversion".

"Though we are present in Gujarat since last three years, we were not that active. But now, we are launching HYV in Gujarat in a big way.
"We have already started building our organisation in several districts and will expand further in future," said Pathak.

The outfit's newly appointed state secretary Arjun Mishra, who will be leading the expansion drive, said, "The Hindu Yuva Vahini will ask the BJP-led Gujarat government to form anti-Romeo squads on the lines of Uttar Pradesh."
The target is to induct six to seven lakh new members, the 25-year-old leader said.
"Our aim is to strengthen our organisation till the ward level. We are aiming to make at least six to seven lakh new members in the first phase, which would be of six months," Mishra said.
According to the two leaders, the key agenda of the outfit would be to spread awareness about the 'true Hindu culture' as well as to keep a check on conversion, incidents of love jihad and cow slaughter.

"We will not engage in re-conversion. Instead, we will make Hindus aware about how they are being lured to convert to other religions. Hindus are still being converted in many parts of the state, such as Dahod, Kheda and western Ahmedabad," Pathak claimed.
"Another key issue is love-jihad. We will engage in awareness campaigns to stop this activity. We will also help victims and their parents," he said.