Govt faces flak, says don’t give communal colour to lynchings
NEW DELHI: The opposition on Wednesday took the government to task in the Rajya Sabha over violence against Dalits and minorities, accusing it of entering into a tacit understanding with cow vigilantes who indulged in violence and lynchings.
The Narendra Modi government, however, termed such incidents as plain crime, saying such incidents should not be given a communal colour.
Opening a discussion on cow vigilantism and atrocities against the Dalits and minorities, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said there is an implicit or explicit hand of the “people from the parivar” (a reference to the Sangh Parivar or Hindutva groups) in mob violence in the last three years.
“We suspect this is happening with a tacit understanding between the government and the cow vigilantes. The Prime Minister is giving statements but this is going on and nobody is being caught,” Azad, a senior Congress leader, said
Azad urged the Bharatiya Janata Party not to “vitiate” the atmosphere in the country in the name of caste or religion.
Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal said the National Democratic Alliance government should declare that mob lynching on any pretext will no longer be tolerated. He said cow vigilantism was hurting the poor as weekly animal fairs/markets had ended and stray cows along with neelgai (blue bull) are becoming a menace in rural areas by destroying standing crops overnight.
Communist Party of IndiaMarxist leader Sitaram Yechury demanded a ban on cow vigilante groups. “Today, when I speak here, my head hangs in shame.What has our republic come to?” Yechury said
He said: “Private armies taking law into their hands can’t be stopped by states alone and they must be banned by the Centre.”
Trinamool Congress member Derek O’Brien said the government must name the groups and individuals behind mob violence, which he said was not cow vigilantism but “cow terrorism”. “Only then we will take you (government) seriously. Otherwise, we will be suspicious,” he said.