Kapil Sibal questions Modi’s silence on lynching

New Delhi: Alleging that the increasing instances of people being lynched in the country are a result of the “silence of leadership”, senior Congress leader Mr. Kapil Sibal on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi why he did not talk about hate crimes in his “Mann ki Baat” programme. In a tweet Mr. Sibal said, “An environment of hate allows for rumour-mongers inciting mob lynching. This is the result of silence of leadership when crimes are committed with impunity by harbingers of hate. Why no Mann ki Baat on hate crimes since 2014?”

The Congress has been targeting the government on the issue of mob violence and has claimed that there have been almost 28 cases of people being lynched every month under the Modi government, a first in the 70 years of the country's independence. Earlier this week five people were lynched in Maharashtra over rumors. In a press conference Congress spokesman Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi had also echoed his party colleague’s line and accused the central government of “aiding and abetting” incidents of lynching across the country.

“... Absolute anarchy, mob frenzy and jungle raaj have become the new symbols of Shri Modi’s New India under which an unprecedented atmosphere of hate and violence writs large,” Dr. Singhvi told reporters. Rumours, state-aided licences to kill and the decimation of rule of law have led to a “lynching movement” and shaken our “national conscience”, the Congress leader added.

Accusing the BJP, Dr. Singhvi said, “It is high time, the BJP government takes note of this widespread mob frenzy and lynching incidents.”