Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday rejected Opposition’s demand for sacking of Union Minister Ram Shankar Katheria and slapping of sedition charge against him for an alleged hate speech in Agra. Replying to a calling attention motion on the issue, Singh said Katheria did not say anything “objectionable” against any community and media reports on the event appeared to be “distorted and incorrect”.
The Home Minister also said that since the case pertains to the State administration as the alleged speech was made in Agra, it is expected that the Uttar Pradesh Government will conduct the investigation in a “fair and impartial manner” and take necessary action.
“The Government is opposed to all statements/ speeches which divide the country on the basis of religion, caste and creed. This Government is fully committed to the Constitution and the law of the land,” Singh asserted.
He said the Government had examined the video recording of the February 28 condolence meeting of slain VHP leader Arun Mathur, where MoS HRD had participated.
“We gave the CD to our officers. They informed that there were no objectionable utterances by the Minister. He had not said anything against or used derogatory language against any community. No objectionable contents against any particular community have been noticed in the speech. Accordingly, the news reports appear to be distorted and incorrect,” Singh said, adding that since Katheria had not made inflammatory statements, the police did not file an FIR against him.
Asserting that nobody stands to gain by violence, he said such incidents should not be given “political colour”. The Minister said India was the only secular country in the world and urged all members to work together to “make it a beautiful nation”.
Opposition members, including leader of Opposition GhulamNabi Azad, gunned for Katheria and other RSS-BJP leaders for making inflammatory speeches and sought registration of sedition cases against them. CPI leader D Raja joined Azad in slamming the Government saying he does not know the ‘Mother India’ that the Government always talks about.