Kashmir’s main opposition party National Conference legislators rescue Independent lawmaker Abdul Rashid after he was thrashed by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) legislators in the state assembly in Srinagar yesterday.
Agencies/Patna
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for religious unity yesterday after days of growing tensions over a Muslim man’s murder by a mob for supposedly eating beef.
The prime minister has been under growing pressure to break his silence over the incident and defuse a row raging over a feared rising intolerance towards Muslims and other religious minorities.
Mohamed Akhlaq, 50, was dragged from his home outside the Indian capital last week and beaten to death after rumours spread that he had eaten beef. His 22-year-old son was severely injured in the attack.
At least eight men have been arrested over the September 28 murder.
Without referring specifically to the attack, Modi said the nation will only prosper “when Hindus and Muslims unite and fight” against poverty instead of against each other.
“The country has to stand united. Harmony, brotherhood and peace will lead us to development,” Modi said at an election rally for the upcoming polls in Bihar.
Modi also implored people to ignore political leaders who have jumped on the issue in recent days to win votes along religious lines ahead of the election.
Several of Modi’s own ministers have stopped short of condemning the attack outside New Delhi, fuelling concerns among religious minorities of an erosion of rights in the world’s biggest democracy, and emboldening Hindu hardliners.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday called for India’s tradition of tolerance to be upheld, in what was seen as an attempt to calm raging anger over the issue.
Modi’s comments come just hours after legislators from his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) punched and shoved an opposition Muslim member in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly over eating beef.
Television footage showed several BJP legislators attacked Abdul Rashid for holding a provocative “beef party”.
“No amount of condemnation can be enough for what happened today,” opposition leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah told reporters outside the assembly in Srinagar.
“Trying to beat up a member, this is the first time I have ever seen something like this in any house,” said Abdullah, whose party walked out of the chamber over the attack.
Rashid served beef kebabs at the “party” this week in protest against a ban on killing and eating cows in the state. The issue ignited in Kashmir after the state high court last month ordered the long-standing but little enforced prohibition be strictly implemented.
Rashid said that about 10 to 14 BJP members “just pounced on me as soon as I entered the house,” saying he had feared for his life. Footage showed legislators rounding on Rashid, trying to hit him as others held them back.
“I have done nothing wrong,” Rashid said. “I consumed beef. It is my religious right and also my fundamental right.”
Party officials condemned the violence, but no complaint has been filed with police over the incident.
Modi’s BJP colleagues have came under fire for appearing to trivialise Akhlaq’s murder.
“If somebody says it was pre-planned, I don’t agree. It was an accident and investigations should happen,” Modi’s culture minister Mahesh Sharma told reporters during a visit to the victim’s family last week.
Commentators have also warned of an emboldening of Hindu hardliners since Modi came to power, with vigilante gangs increasingly campaigning against Muslims.
