If necessary, government will enact anti-lynching law: Rajnath Singh

NEW DELHI: The opposition in both the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday used the Alwar lynching incident to target the Narendra Modi government.

While Lok Sabha MPs demanded that such killings be probed by a Supreme Court judge, members of the Upper House sought a law to prevent killings by vigilantes.

Responding to the opposition criticism in the Lower House, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said, if necessary, the government would enact a law against lynching.


Singh said the government has taken such incidents seriously and that a high-level committee has already been constituted to deal with such cases. The opposition parties, however, rejected the government decision to constitute a ministerial panel to look into such incidents.

Raising the issue, Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge said mob lynching has assumed ominous dimension and insisted that the government must agree to probe by a sitting apex court judge. He also accused the Rajasthan Police of shielding the accused in the Alwar incident.

The home minister once again tried to link the lynching incidents to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. “This didn’t start only recently, the incidents of lynching have been going on since years. I have said this earlier too, the biggest mob lynching is what happened in 1984,” he said.

In the Rajya Sabha, Shanta Chhetri of Trinamool Congress cited media reports to say that “88 precious lives have been lost (in lynching incidents) since this government came to power”. Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu hoped the government will take note of the issue raised.