Anita Saluja/ENS

New Delhi, Feb 14: For a change, the BJP, hailed as a conservative party hell-bent on preserving Hindu traditions, will celebrate Valentine’s Day nation-wide on Thursday.

However, they would be enjoying the festival, wearing masks! With mukhota (masks) being in vogue in the party after the Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP Yuva Morcha (Youth Wing) leaders will don the masks and present it to their partners.

Ironically, the leaders would not be putting on masks of Narendra Modi, but that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afzal Guru, the mastermind in Parliament attack case.

Manmohan has been termed as a weak Prime Minister by the BJP, with the Congress-led UPA Government unable to execute the death sentence on Afzal. Wearing masks of Manmohan, the young brigade of the BJP will present roses to Afzal, projecting the love between the two.

While the Prime Minister symbolises weak government, Afzal stands for terrorism and Muslim appeasement. By presenting roses to each other, the BJP intends to expose the Congress- led UPA Government, which is soft towards terrorism and sordid vote bank politics.

The BJP-affiliated Bajrang Dal and its ally the Shiv Sena term the Valentine’s Day as the love festival of the West, which is against India’s cultural ethos.

The Bajrang Dal went on the rampage in Indore and Bhopal on Wednesday in protest against the Valentine’s Day, while the Shiv Sena announced in Delhi that it would also oppose the Lovers’ Day since it encourages western style promiscuity.