Opposition parties on Sunday targeted the Centre over garlanding of eight convicts in the Ramgarh lynching case by Union Minister Jayant Sinha after they were released on bail.
Sinha also invited criticism from his father and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha who in a tweet, said he did not approve of his son’s act and said he was earlier ‘nalayak’ (worthless) father of a ‘layak’ (worthy) son, but it is the reverse now.
Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said when BJP Ministers are garlanding and supporting criminals, what more proof is required about the agenda of the BJP, which is no longer hidden. “Does the PM have an answer to why BJP leaders are garlanding, meeting, supporting criminals, involved in mob lynchings, communal riotingIJ What more proof is required about BJP’s agenda, which is not even hidden now,” Gehlot said.
Sinha has stoked a controversy by felicitating the convicts, with Opposition terming it a “despicable” and “unfortunate” act. Meat trader Alimuddin Ansari was beaten to death on June 29 last year by a mob at the Bazaar Tand area under Ramgarh police station on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car. Sinha, however, later said he unequivocally condemns all acts of violence and rejected any type of vigilantism.
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karata said it shows that the ruling dispensation is not interested in giving any kind of justice to the victims of lynchings.
“Now if a Union Minister gets photographed with them in his house and starts garlanding them, then it is very clear that the ruling regime in the country are not interested at all in giving justice to the lynched victims,” she said.
The RJD also put out a picture of the Minister with the accused after their garlanding on its official Twitter handle and said in Hindi that “After killing somebody by beating, the Government will honour you....”
Congress spokesperson RPN Singh termed the incident as “horrific” and said on the one side the Minister is garlanding the accused, on the other the Government is claiming to put an end to lynchings. “We see that the Government is issuing advisory on the Whatsapp issue. These advisories just seem to be something which is passed on to the States when Ministers in the Central Government are actually congratulating or helping people who are allegedly involved with lynching. You can understand where this government is taking this country to,” he said.
“What is the intention of this Government. On one side Jayant Sinha honours them and on the other, this Government talks of putting an end to lynchings,” he said, adding that “we want to ask the prime minister as to what kind of security has he to offer to the women in the country”.