More lynchings under earlier govts but no one questioned them: Amit Shah
The BJP chief suggested there was a widespread effort by the opposition to unfairly blame the Narendra Modi government over the lynchings, and people criticised the Centre even though law and order was a state subject.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has said his party was being unfairly blamed for public lynchings, and such incidents had happened earlier too under previous governments than during the three years of the NDA rule but questions were not asked then.
“I do not want to undermine lynching incidents, by presenting a comparison. But in 2011, 2012, 13, there were more lynchings each year than in these three years (of NDA rule). But questions were not asked then. How are questions being asked now?” Shah said at a party programme in Panaji on Saturday evening.
“There have been more lynchings each year in the past, compared to the total lynching incidents that have happened during our three-year-long tenure,” he said.
Asked if apprehension about public lynchings had been quelled by Prime Minister Modi’s recent public statement criticising such incidents, Shah replied, “There is no apprehension anywhere in the country.”
“Do you know of any such incident where arrests have not been made? I do not have any answer to apprehensions. There is no apprehension anywhere in the country,” he said.
The BJP chief suggested there was a widespread effort by the opposition to unfairly blame the Modi government over the lynchings.
Shah said that law and order was a state subject, and when Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten to death at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh in September 2015 over suspicion of storing and consuming beef, the state had a Samajwadi Party government and it was its responsibility to prevent the incident.
“But protests were held in Delhi in front of the Narendra Modi government. What is this fashion?” he asked.
He said Prime Minister Modi had publicly criticised mob violence.
Raising questions over mass criticism from the media over lynchings, he said the allegations were unfair.
Shah questioned the rationale of journalists raising questions. “What is this fashion? I can understand citizens, but why are journalists getting caught in such a flow?”
A string of such incidents have been reported from several states including BJP-rule Jharkhand, Haryana and UP.
Recently, a 15-year-old boy Junaid Khan was stabbed to death by a group of men on a train when he was returning home to Haryana’s Ballabh district after shopping for Eid. Junaid bled to death after a heated argument over seats turned violent. His assailants allegedly accused Junaid, his brother and friends of being beef eaters.
In Jharkhand’s Ramgarh, a Muslim meat trader was beaten to death by cow vigilantes who alleged he was carrying beef in his vehicle. Nityanand Mahto, a BJP leader, is among those arrested in connection with the incident.
(With agency inputs)