BJP and Narendra Modi, worst victims of intolerance: Rajnath Singh

NEW DELHI: BJP and Narendra Modi were the worst victims of intolerance of the Opposition, home minister Rajnath Singh has claimed. Replying to a debate on intolerance in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Singh pointed to the plight of minority sects among Muslims in several Islamic nations to argue that India offered the best example of tolerance, where different religions, castes and sects coexisted in peace and harmony.

On his part, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, “protests were being treated as sedition”, while urging the NDA government not to “learn the wrong lesson from Pakistan where rulers crush voices of dissent”. Referring to Modi’s speech in the House, when he recalled an incident during his stint as CM, Gandhi said, “Modiji must use the Constitution rather than merely placing it on top of an elephant and walking ahead.”

He demanded to know why the PM was silent after a man was murdered in Dadri and when his ministers made ‘rabid’ comments. Gandhi said the PM should try to emulate framers of the Constitution than mentioning them. “Listen to your people, embrace your own people.

Mahatma Gandhi gave voice to the people… People like Narayana Murthy, Raghuram Rajan and PM Bhargava are among protesters... They are disturbed like millions of others… try to understand what is disturbing them.” Targeting Union minister VK Singh for his insensitive comments after two Dalit children were burnt to death, Gandhi said, “our prime minister allowed this man (VK Singh) to continue as minister. Ambedkar…wrote the Constitution so that the children would not be burnt. The PM is unable to see the contradiction.”

In his reply, the home minister criticised artistes who returned awards. He alleged some of them had urged voters to prevent Modi from becoming PM and asked why they did not protest after the anti-Sikh riots and during Emergency. However, Singh appealed to the artistes to discuss their grievances with him and promised to “correct course” if needed.

“The three worst case of intolerance were Partition, imposition of Emergency and anti-Sikh riots,” he claimed, prompting Opposition members to ask “what about the assassination of Gandhiji and Gujarat riots?”