Uttar Pradesh: VHP organizes campaign stopping Muslim henna artists to applying on Hindu women accusing “targeting religious conversion”

In an effort to discourage Muslim men from applying henna on the hands of Hindu women, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, and Rashtriya Sevika Samiti jointly arranged mehendi camps at 11 different places in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, on the occasion of ‘Karwa Chauth’, as part of their two-year campaign to prevent Hindu girls from being targeted for religious conversion. Maheshwari, VHP’s Prant Sah Gau Raksha Pramukh in Muzaffarnagar, explained that shopkeepers had hired Muslims as henna artists who then used the opportunity to lure Hindu girls and women on the pretext of offering them their services at lower prices. This targeted measure and false narrative posed a threat to the livelihoods of Muslim men working as henna artists in the area.