K.M. Ashokan, father of Hadiya, the Kerala woman who converted to Islam and married a Muslim youth in 2015, has joined the BJP.
Ashokan has extended support to the BJP's ongoing stir against the Supreme Court verdict on the Sabarimala temple. Ashokan said the BJP was the only political party that protected the beliefs of Hindus.
Saying that he was a Communist earlier, Ashokan alleged the CPI(M) was lately indulged in “dirty” vote-bank politics. He added that he had joined the BJP three years ago, but received the official membership on Sunday. Notably, the BJP is spearheading the protest against the Supreme Court's decision allowing the entry of young women to the Sabarimala temple.
The Hadiya case had come into prominence when Ashokan approached the judiciary and police alleging his daughter was a victim of 'love jihad'.
Ashokan had initially filed a police case and then a habeas corpus petition in the Kerala High Court to trace her. Hadiya said she had left her home as she was forbidden from practising Islam by her father. She had converted to Islam and married Shafin Jehan, an active member of the PFI-affiliated Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
Ashokan and the rest of the family had alleged that Hadiya, formerly Akhila Ashokan, was brainwashed and that her marriage was forced. But Hadiya informed the court that she had married and converted to Islam on her own volition.
In May 2017, Hadiya's marriage was annulled by the Kerala High Court on the grounds of a report submitted by the NIA saying that Hadiya was a victim of indoctrination and psychological kidnapping. Hadiya's custody was then handed over to Ashokan under the argument that “As per Indian tradition, the custody of an unmarried daughter is with the parents, until she is properly married.”
Shafin Jahan appealed the Kerala High Court and move the Supreme Court, which then directed Hadiya to resume her internship as she was a homeopathic medical student. She was also told that she was free to meet whomever she wanted. In March 2018, the Supreme court restored Hadiya's marriage, 10 months after the Kerala High Court annulled it.
Interestingly, earlier when the case was going on in the Supreme Court, Ashokan had said in an affidavit to the court that he was an atheist. He had said that he was not against Hadiya practising Islam as he was an atheist. Vaikom constituency BJP president P.G. Bijukumar said that apart from Ashokan, more than 50 people joined BJP at TV Puram.
