23 Oct, 2015
Murder in India: Modi’s fail – Ramesh Thakur, Policy Forum
On September 28, just outside Delhi in Dadri, a 50-year-old Muslim man, Mohammad Akhlaq, was lynched by a mob wielding sticks, swords and makeshift pistols. Whipped into a killing frenzy by an announcement in a local temple that someone had slaughtered a cow and eaten beef, the mob accused Akhlaq of this heinous – to Hindus – crime, brushing aside the family’s protestations of innocence.
Meanwhile at Facebook headquarters in California on September 27 – that is, the same day Indian time – Prime Minister Narendra Modi teared up and his voice broke as he recalled the sacrifices his mother had made to raise him. His paean to mothers rings hollow against Ashgari Akhlaq’s emotions at her son being killed in their own house where they had lived peacefully with neighbours for several generations.
It took Modi ten days to refer to the lynching publicly, and then only to deliver a homily about how Hindus and Muslims should join forces to fight poverty and not each other. No condemnation, no abhorrence of what had been done in the name of his religion, no words of solace and condolence to the grieving family.
Read the rest: Murder in India: Modi’s fail – Policy Forum
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