By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 14 Oct 2015: Only Prime Minister Narendra Modi can tell why he chose to express sorrow at the Dadri lynching in a newspaper interview, not at the election rallies that he is addressing almost daily in Bihar. However, those who were demanding him to break his silence over the gruesome killing of a 50-year-old man over beef rumours for the last two weeks, must be feeling a bit relaxed now.
But had he expressed sorrow and strongly condemned the incident at an election rally, it would have sent strong signals to the elements who are hell-bent to disturb peace and communal harmony in the country.
In an interview to esteemed Bengali newspaper Ananda Bazar Patrika today (Wednesday), PM Modi said the incidents such as the lynching of a 50-year-old man in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and the controversy surrounding the concert of Pakistani Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali were ‘sad’. But he also asked as to how the central government could be blamed for such incidents.
“Dadri incident or the incident against the Pakistani singer is sad and unwelcome. But what is the role of the central government in it?” the Prime Minister asked.
This is the first time that the PM has mentioned the horrific lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq who was beaten to death by a mob over beef rumours in Dadri area near Delhi on 28th Sep.
In an indirect reference to the incident, the PM, at an election rally in Bihar last week, had said Muslims and Hindus should not fight each other rather poverty.
It is interesting that chief of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah has also broken his silence over the issue the same day. Shah, in an interview to TV news channel India Today, said the Dadri lynching was “wrong” and the perpatrators should be punished. “Whoever has done….this is wrong. They should be arrested and punished,” Shah told the channel while answering a question on the lynching of 50-year-old Akhlaq.
The Dadri incident made national and international headlines and several renowned literary persons have since returned their award in protest against the incident, and growing intolerance in the country and attacks on freedom of speech and silence of the PM on all these incidents.
