"Love jihad a national problem": Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay reacts to Mohan Bhagwat's remarks

Surat (Gujarat) [India], January 5 (ANI): Senior advocate Ashwini Upadhyay termed love jihad "a national problem," claiming that over five lakh girls fall victim to it annually, leading to shifts in India's population demographics.
Upadhyay was reacting to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent remarks on love jihad.
He further alleged that love jihad is being orchestrated in a planned manner, involving the settlement of infiltrators and systematic religious conversions across the country.
Speaking to ANI on Sunday, Upadhyay said, "Love Jihad has become a national problem, and more than 5 lakh girls are falling victim to it every year... This is continuously changing the population demographics of India... Love Jihad is happening in India in a highly planned manner; infiltrators are being settled in India, and religious conversions are also taking place in a highly planned manner."
"The ultimate target is to change India's demography, because if a place's demography changes, its culture also changes," he added.
Earlier, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said that efforts to prevent 'love jihad' must begin within families. He made the remarks while addressing the 'Stri Shakti Samvad' programme in Bhopal on Saturday.
In December 2025, Bhagwat also spoke against live-in relationships, emphasising the importance of family structure in society.
"Regarding the concept of live-in relationships. You're not ready to take responsibility. This isn't right. The family, marriage, is not just a means of physical satisfaction. It's a unit of society. The family is where an individual learns how to live in society. People's values come from there," Bhagwat said. (ANI)