The lok Sabha on Monday witnessed a heated debate on lynching, with the Congress accusing the Centre of creating an atmosphere of fear and terror by “indirectly encouraging” cow vigilantism as the Government hit back saying that bereft of any real issue after creating ‘award Vapsi’ and freedom of expression row the opposition was now deliberately constructing a controversy over mob lynching.
The Government asserted that the Opposition while listing a number of mob violence in the country was “unconcerned” about the lynching of a Srinagar police official and was trying to tarnish the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and thereby that of the country. The ruling side said it was the responsibility of the State Governments to deal with such crimes and claimed that prompt action and arrests were made by the State Governments in all the cases.
Responding for the Government, Union Home Minister for the State Kiran Rijiju said by raising the issue against the Government, the Opposition was “getting exposed” and the BJP was growing stronger. He sought to know if opposition’s line had substance why was BJP receiving increasing public support IJ “Jitna badnam karoge, utna badnam ho javo ge..”, he said.
Citing the Rs contrastRs between the Government and Opposition stands , the Home Minister said as against our ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ opposition supports ‘Bharat ke tukde dukde..’, as for surgical strike by the army, the opposition demands “proof” and when “we want army be respected” , it describes “Army Chief as goonda”. The Home Minister said after the failure of ‘Ghar Vapsi’ and Freedom of expression row, the opposition was on lynching issue.
He said while from the first day of his Government Prime Minister was focusing on ‘Vikas’ why should Opposition be diverting attention on other issues and “ giving bad name to the country IJ”.
As the House took up a discussion on the lynchings, members of all parties condemned the killings in the name of cow even as the Opposition parties like the Congress and Trinamool Congress accused the BJP-led government of encouraging groups behind the violence by cow vigilantes.The BJP, in turn, lashed out at the Opposition parties for targeting the Central Government over lynchings and said Prime Minister has repeatedly come out strongly against such acts.
Starting the debate , leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said ‘Hindustan’ should not be allowed to become “lynchistan”. He accused outfits like VHP and Bajrang Dal of being behind the mob violence.
The Prime Minister says he is against such violence but what action has he taken, Kharge asked and added, “He (PM) says something and does something else.” He said there was no action against cow vigilantes despite on and off comments of the Prime Minister. Citing a number of incidents this year to say that the lynchings had mostly happened in the BJP-ruled states, Kharge said there was an atmosphere of fear and terror across the country, which has brought a bad name to India in the world.
“ It is also being done so that your ideology and philosophy could be established in the country,” the Congress leader said, pointing to the BJP’s “links” with these outfits.
BJP-ruled Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had become centres of mob lynching, he said, adding that such incidents would become a major threat to the nation’s integrity.
Referring to the murder of a BJP worker in Kerala, he said the Governor there summoned the DGP on the issue, but nothing of that sort was done in other states where lynching incidents took place.
BJP members objected to Kharge citing incidents, saying many of the cases he was referring to were sub-judice.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also objected to his reference to former President Pranab Mukherjee’s speech, saying it was against rules.Countering Kharge’s onslaught against the Government, BJP leader Hukumdev Narayan Yadav said, “Some people are indulging in terror (atankvadi) activities to defame the Government.”
Yadav, the MP from Madhubani in Bihar, said a fight between two ideologies has been going on for several decades and said that those who follow the path of “economic development and nationalism” will come out victorious.He quoted BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya to say that that “Muslims in India are descendants of Hindus.”He said every Muslim must respect Hindu sentiment and at the same time, Hindus must respect the Muslims.
Sougata Roy of Trinamool Congress quoted the findings of a magazine to say that between 2010-2017 there were 63 incidents of mob violence in the name of cow protection.He demanded a separate law -- “Manav Suraksha Kanoon” (human protection law) -- to deal with incidents of lynching, arguing that the Criminal Procedure Code and Indian Penal Code do not define lynching.“The Government keeps saying it wants Congress-free India, I want to ask, do you want to make a Muslim-free India as well,” Roy said, provoking protests from BJP members.
Rijiju objected to Roy’s remarks, saying that TMC MP should not mislead the House and should specify on what basis he is giving the data.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and S S Ahluwalia objected to the use of a word by Roy which was immediately expunged by Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai. Heated exchanges also broke out between Ahluwalia and BJP MPs on one side and Kalyan Banerjee and other TMC MPs on the other.
Roy sarcastically also remarked that a missing case has been registered in Darjeeling against a BJP MP, an apparent reference to Ahluwalia who represents the lok Sabha seat.
Ahluwalia responded by saying, “I am standing right in front of you.... How can I be missingIJ
The Trinamool MP said “very few cases” of bovine related cases occur in the eastern India in Bengal and Odisha. “Why is this not being controlledIJ Because top BJP leaders were shy of condemning it.”
lJP leader and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Opposition was attacking the Modi government for the responsibilities to be fulfilled by the states.He said while Modi has condemned such incidents, the then Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots had remarked “when a big tree falls, the earth does shake”.He said in the past three years, Modi has not spoken on Ram Janmabhoomi or Uniform Civil Code or Babri Masjid or Article 370.Hitting at the main Opposition party, he quipped, “The Congress party has one leg in the grave.”
BJD leader Tathagat Satpathy said every Indian is precious and if it is not, then “we are criminals”.He said rural economy is getting damaged by incidents of lynching as an economic cycle has been stopped.
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said discrimination is happening on various grounds, religion, caste, language and region, and wanted it to end.
K Gopal (AIADMK) said beef issue has become a polarising subject and emphasised that it is everybody’s collective responsibility to ensure harmony in the society.