IANS/New Delhi
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah yesterday censured five party leaders whose controversial remarks on beef have embarrassed the party, sources said.
Shah conveyed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anguish in separate meetings he held at the party office here with the five, including Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar, the sources said.
The others who faced Modi’s wrath were ministers Mahesh Sharma and Sanjeev Baliyan, Lok Sabha member Sakshi Maharaj and Uttar Pradesh legislator Sangeet Som.
Shah reportedly told them that the prime minister was “upset” with the kind of remarks they have made relating to eating beef in the wake of last month’s murder of a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh.
Mohamed Akhlaq, 50, was dragged out of his house in Dadri near Delhi and lynched by a mob following rumours that he killed a cow and ate its meat. His son was also seriously injured.
Akhlaq’s family denied the allegation, saying he only ate mutton.
Even as the killing ignited widespread condemnation, some BJP leaders made comments that appeared to justify the grisly murder.
The BJP leaders who met Shah, however, claimed they were not pulled up and that they had only discussed party matters.
But a party source said that the only thread linking the five were their comments on beef and related issues.
After meeting Shah, Som said: “We ... (discussed) party matters.”
Sakshi Maharaj said no “explanation” was sought from him and he gave none, and that he and Shah talked about the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Khattar, who stoked embarrassment by telling a newspaper that Muslims must give up eating beef if they wanted to live in India, also spoke on similar lines, saying his meeting with Shah was already scheduled.
The hardline views by some BJP leaders over beef and Muslims have come at a time when Modi is trying to woo voters in Bihar on a platform of development and oneness.
The opposition wasn’t impressed by Shah’s admonition of erring BJP colleagues.
Spokesmen for the Congress, Janata Dal-United and Communist Party of India called the meeting a cosmetic exercise, and said it seemed to be a course correction amid the Bihar battle.
In a related development, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) described as “false and baseless” reports that it supported Akhlaq’s lynching.
The RSS is considered the ideological parent of the BJP.
As the media carried excerpts from an article in RSS Hindi journal Panchjanya virtually justifying the murder of Akhlaq, the organisation said the magazine was not its mouthpiece.
“The report that RSS supports the Dadri incident is blatantly false and baseless,” a statement by RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya said.
“RSS never supported any incident of violence. RSS has clearly stated about Dadri violence that a thorough inquiry should be conducted and the guilty should be punished.”
Vaidya added that “Panchjanya” and its English counterpart Organiser were “not the mouthpiece of RSS. An official office bearer only speaks on behalf of RSS.”
Also yesterday, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi sought a ban on organisations and publications which don’t believe in the Indian constitution and rule of law, and said outfits justifying killings and promoting a “lynch mentality” should be immediately banned.
“Cases should be booked against such organisations and owners of such publications,” Owaisi told reporters in Bihar, where he is campaigning for his party candidates in the assembly elections.
“The Indian constitution is not based on any religion and nor can India become a religious state. These people are talking of making India a Hindu rashtra (nation),” said Owaisi.
Shah: warns senior colleagues
