Rathore plays down Sinha meeting convicts

Union minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore on Friday chose to play down the controversy over his ministerial colleague Jayant Sinha meeting members of a cow vigilante group convicted for the murder of a meat merchant in Jharkhand, saying they belonged to the same constituency and the minister was only seeing members of his ‘extended family’.

“They (the convicts and Mr Sinha) belonged to the same constituency, which means they are an extended family,” Mr Rathod told reporters here on Friday.

“We have courts of appeal in India and they have a right to appeal to the higher courts. They have done so. It was proper for Mr Sinha to meet them and offer help.”

Mr Rathore said he was “not defending anyone” but this was what he understood after talking to Sinha. “I also call members of my constituency my family members,” he claimed.

Mr Sinha, Union minister of state for civil aviation, had on July 4 received at his home with garlands and sweets six people convicted for the murder of Alimuddin Ansari on June 29 last year in Ramgarh when they were released on bail.

He expressed regrets after the photograph of him standing with the convicted criminals went viral and drew criticism.

Mr Rathore said the BJP will bank on the good work the government has done and the goodwill of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls. “A lot of people have directly benefitted from Centre’s schemes,” he said.

“When they realised that they will lose the battle, they have turned to rhetoric,” he said, referring to Shashi Tharoor’s charge that the BJP would turn Indian into a ‘Hindu rashtra’ if it won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.