PM breaks silence, invokes Prez words

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has broken his silence over the mob lynching of a Muslim man, Mohammad Akhlaq, rumoured to have eaten beef the BBC reports.

Modi’s main rival in the election, Bihar’s current Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was a former ally of the BJP who is respected for cleaning up the state’s crime-ridden politics and building up its infrastructure.

Mohammed Akhlaq, a 50-year-old Muslim labourer, was killed last week by a Hindu mob enraged by rumours he had eaten beef.

Breaking his silence over horrific Dadri lynching incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Hindus-Muslims should work together to fight poverty and not against each other.

The Times of India Saturday said a few 500 people armed with bamboo sticks and iron rods had set fire to shops belonging to Muslims before police dispersed the mob using tear gas. Earlier in the year too, in his address to the nation on the eve of our 69th Independence Day, he had emphasised that “our democracy is creative because it is plural”. Modi, a Hindu nationalist, said during the campaign that he supported a national ban on cow slaughter. “Muslims have to decide whether to fight Hindus or poverty…Both need to fight poverty together…The country has to stay united”, Modi said.

He minced no words to assert that only communal harmony and brotherhood could ensure the country’s march forward. Yet for large numbers of low-caste Hindus, beef is an affordable source of protein, and for India’s growing urban upper class, burgers and steaks are sought-after items, even status symbols. Oza noted that President Pranab Mukherjee has emphasized that the core values of diversity, tolerance and plurality of Indian civilization must be kept in mind and can not be allowed to be wasted.

While addressing a rally in Bihar on Thursday, PM Modi slammed politicians for making unnecessary comments for political gains.

His remarks come against the backdrop of controversial statements made by various politicians, including BJP Ministers Mahesh Sharma and Sanjeev Balyan and other leaders like Sakshi Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath and Sangeet Som, as also SP’s Azam Khan and AIMIM leader Assaduddin Owaisi.

Hindus consider cows to be sacred, and slaughtering the animals is banned in most Indian states.

The lawmaker said the ruling apparently made little difference to his attackers. “I take the responsibility of fulfilling your dreams”. Sections of the corporate media, controlled as always by the government in power (the Congress was as adept as the BJP in manipulating the news) projected the PMs statement as an act of concern, without delving deeper into the issue. “There is no bigger inspiration than him, let’s follow his path”, Modi said.