Oppn stages walkout in LS over lynching incidents

The Opposition MPs on Thursday staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha, protesting against the failure of the NDA government to check incidents of lynching across the country.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the Centre had issued advisories to the state governments asking them to take stern actions against people responsible for lynching. He said the Union government had also asked the social media service providers to introduce checks so that unscrupulous people could not use the platforms provided by them to spread rumours and fake news to incite mobs.

The MPs of the Congress and CPM were not impressed by the statement of the home minister and staged a walkout as a mark of protest.

The issue came up in the Lok Sabha just two days after the Supreme Court (SC) expressed concern over such incidents across the country. The SC on Tuesday urged Parliament to enact a new law exclusively to deal with the cases of lynching.

The Congress's K C Venugopal raised the issue in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour. He criticised the government for failing to curb incidents of lynching. He also referred to the investigation launched into the allegation of child trafficking by a nun and another employee of a centre run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Jharkhand. He alleged that the Union government had engaged all its agencies to harass the Missionaries of Charity across the country.

Responding to the allegation by the Congress MP, Home Minister Rajnath Singh acknowledged that several incidents of lynching had been reported from a number of states and some people had lost their lives.

He, however, said that such incidents had taken place in the past too. He said that though it was the responsibility of the state governments to deal with such incidents, the Centre had not remained a mute spectator. He said that the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued an advisory to the state governments in 2016 asking them to take stern action against the people responsible for lynching. A similar advisory had also been issued earlier this month, he added.

Singh said most of the incidents took place after mobs were provoked through inciting messages or fake news spread on social media. He said the government had asked the social media service providers to check such misuse of the online platforms.

The home minister also said that whenever such incidents took place, he had spoken to the chief ministers of the states concerned and asked them to take stern action against the culprits. Singh said the government had condemned all such incidents.

Even as Singh was making a statement in the House, Venugopal and other Congress and CPM MPs were heard making comments referring to the recent controversy over Union minister for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha garlanding eight people, who were convicted of lynching a local coal trader in Jharkhand in June 2017.

Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, expressed dissatisfaction over the statement made by the home minister. The MPs of the Opposition Congress, CPM and the RJD later staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha.