Valentine's Day responsible for rape and violence against women in India says Hindu nationalist leader

Western culture is responsible for violence against women in India, Indresh Kumar, leader of a Hindu nationalist organisation called Rashtriya Swayam Sewak (RSS), has said.

According to Kumar, "western" tradition of Valentine's Day is responsible for "rape, illegitimate children and violence against women" in the country.

He also said that love is pure and regarded as "pious" in India, but the West has commercialised it with traditions such as the Valentine's Day, which has negatively affected Indian culture.

"In India, love has been sacred and pious. It has been sung as the tales of Radha-Krishna, Laila-Majnu and Heer- Ranjha (popular tragic romance tales) but the western culture commercialised love and gave birth to festival of Valentines' day which is now responsible for problems like rape, illegitimate children and violence on women.

"Not only India, the entire world is facing this problem today," Kumar said while addressing RSS volunteers on the completion of a training programme in the northern city of Jaipur on Friday, 2 June.

The RSS is widely regarded as the parent organisation of the ruling party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Not only this, Kumar also blamed the West for the rise of "Triple Talaq", a controversial Islamic practice that allows a man to divorce his wife in minutes by simply saying the word talaq, which means divorce in Arabic, three times.

"The reason behind rape, divorce is this Western culture. People are now expressing their love in the form of Valentine's Day openly. This is what is responsible for the increasing cases of Triple Talaq, rape, domestic violence, killing female foeticide, etc," he told ANI.

However, this was not the first time Kumar has made controversial comments. Earlier this week, he lashed out at people who support beef eating.

He said that beef eating is "evil" and added those who support it were bringing "shame to the country" by indulging in an act which is "against humanity".

"Those who are doing this (beef fests) are just a few among the population of 121 crore. They do not represent the opinion of the nation. Their act and those who support it are evils and against humanity. It is better that they should change their ways," Kumar said.