Intolerance hotly debated during polls, not when BJP workers die in Bengal and Kerala: Amit Shah

 BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday spoke against "selective" intolerance, saying it was "hotly debated" during elections but not taken up when his party workers were killed in Kerala and West Bengal.

Selective intolerance was not good for democracy, he told the party's national executive here. Shah's remarks come against the backdrop of political violence in Kerala and West Bengal and the killing of journalists in Bengaluru and Tripura. Certain acts of intolerance were glossed over and some others were passionately debated, a party statement quoted Shah as saying.

"When our workers are killed in Kerala or West Bengal, when atrocities take place against them, when Kashmiri Pandits are evicted, then intolerance is not talked about. But whenever we approach elections, intolerance is hotly debated. "If there's no consistency in raising the issue of intolerance then no one has any right to raise it," he said.