Their response came after 49 celebrities like Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen and Ramachandra Guha, in a letter, sought to draw the PM's attention
Several BJP leaders have strongly rejected the claim of "rising incidents of mob lynching" made by a collective of eminent personalities, calling them preposterous and a deliberate attempt to undermine the good work of the Narendra Modi government.
Their response came after 49 celebrities like Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen and Ramachandra Guha, in a letter, sought to draw the PM's attention to "a number of tragic events" recently, including incidents of lynching and the alleged weaponisation of the slogan "Jai Shri Ram" into a "war cry".
Denouncing the letter as a desperate attempt to remain in the limelight, BJP national vice president, Prabhat Jha said, "Such letters are written by those who have been rejected by the people of the country. PM Modi has not only warned people involved in lynching, but also taken action against them."
"Have people responsible for the Sonbhadra incident not been put in jail? The Central government is strictly following the rules to maintain law and order. Such occasional outbursts, based on fake propaganda, will not fetch anything," added Jha.
Icons Call On PM For Action
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| 49 celebrities like Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen, Ramachandra Guha sought to draw the PM’s attention to ‘a number of tragic events’ |
| They include incidents of lynching, and the alleged weaponisation of the slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’ into a ‘war cry’ |
Meanwhile, Bollywood filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, terming it as the return of the 'intolerance gang', deemed it to be another failed effort by the so-called intellectuals to castigate the Modi government for the inability of West Bengal state government to maintain the law and order.
"Why are they selective? Where were they when Kashmiri Pandits were being killed and ousted from their homeland? There have been several incidents of mob lynching by minorities, but these people never shed a tear for their victims. Why?" he asked.
The letter, quoting NCRB data, had claimed, "254 religious identity-based hate crimes were reported between October 29, 2018 and January 1, 2009, where 91 persons were killed and 579 injured. The Citizen's Religious Hate Crime watch recorded that Muslims, (14% of population) were the victims in 62% of cases, and Christians in 14% of cases."
OPINION
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| Their blinkered reality |
The ‘intolerance’ lobby is back with a motivated political screed which adds to conflict, rather than resolve it. It mixes an entirely unrelated set of issues. In its world view, victims and perpetrators are pre-determined and any data which does not fit the narrative is dismissed. For instance, in the IndiaFacts Hindu Human Rights Report, we document over 25 cases of violence against Dalits by Muslims. Overall left-wing terror is the biggest killer in India. In 2015, 226 people were killed by Naxals, but this is down from 1,005 in 2010. Urban Naxals must be upset at this decline, no surprise then that ‘intolerance’ is rising.
—Sankrant Sanu, MD, Garuda Prakashan, publisher of ‘Urban Naxal’ |
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