Breaking his silence on growing religious intolerance in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that his government was not responsible for mob killing of a Muslim in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri over rumours that he had eaten and stored beef in his house.
He told ABP group newspaper,”Incidents like Dadri and Ghulam Ali are really sad but what is the role of the Centre in these incidents?” PM Modi has told a newspaper of the ABP group, adding that the “BJP does not support these incidents.”
Modi blamed the opposition for playing the “politics of polarization” adding that “The BJP has always opposed pseudo secularism.”
He said that he and his party are against what he called pseudo-secularism ‘practised by the opposition.’
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Modi’s central government has widely been condemned for what many said encouraging violent groups owing allegiance to the right wing idelogies in the Sangh Pariwar through its silence.
In the recent weeks, over two dozens renowned scholars and writers have returned to literary and Padma honours in protest against the growing religious intolerance and the central government’s inability to stop such incidents.
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Many accused in Dadri lynching belonged to the family of a local BJP leader Sanjay Rana. Modi’s cabinet member and the local MP, Mahesh Sharma, had described the lynching of Akhlaq as a mere accident, while another BJP MP, Yogi Adityanath’s outfit had reportedly offered guns to local Hindus to arm themselves.
Sakshi Maharaj, another BJP MP, had ‘justified’ Dadri’s mob lynching adding that those ate beef must be meted such treatment.
On September 28, 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was dragged out of his home by villagers and beaten to death after announcements were made at a local temple about a calf being killed.
More recently, BJP’s ally in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena, was responsible for the cancellation of a concert by the renowned ghazal singer Ghulam Ali. The Shiv Sainiks then attacked former BJP leader, Sudheendra Kulkarni for hosting a former Pakistani minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, for his book launch.