Cong blasts Centre over 'lynching'

The opposition Congress on Monday slammed the Centre in the Lok Sabha for failing to stop lynching of people by cow vigilantes across the country.

The BJP sought to counter the charge, alleging that certain people were trying to malign the government, which was trying to lead the nation to prosperity through “economic revolution and nationalism”.

Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, accused the BJP-led government of encouraging the cow vigilantes and other such groups orchestrating atrocities on people of minority community and the Dalits.

 He alleged that although Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly spoken up, disapproving lynching of people in the name of protecting cattles, no action had been taken against the cow vigilantes on the ground.

Kharge’s attack was countered by BJP’s Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, who questioned if the attacks by stone pelters on the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir or the killing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers in Kerala were less grave offence than the incidents of lynching of people cited by the Opposition MPs.

 He also cited incidents from his own constituency in Bihar, where people of a certain religious community had difficulty to take out procession after Durga Puja through a particular road which had the shrine of another religious community. Earlier, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan allowed Kharge to start the debate on the issue under Rule 193 shortly after the Question Hour was over

“In Modi’s new India, radical elements are lynching innocent people. Instead of being reined in and subjected to stern actions, the cow vigilantes are taking up law in their own hand and lynching people,” Kharge said, amid repeated interruption by the BJP MPs from the Treasury Bench. “He (prime minister) says something and does something else,” he said, adding that the incidents of lynching not only cast a shadow of fear across the country, but also tarnished the image of the nation worldwide.