Rajnath Singh hits out at critics, but vows to protect amity

Many Opposition MPs walk out of House in protest, Rahul warns NDA not to ‘learn wrong lessons’ from Pakistan

Dismissing the recent protests across the country against various incidents of intolerance, home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday countered that a “farcical” atmosphere was being created to project a wrong image of the nation before the world, and assured the Lok Sabha that anybody who tried to disturb the amity and integrity of the country “would not be spared”.

Replying to the two-day debate in the Lok Sabha over “intoleran-ce”, Mr Singh, in his 40-minute speech, said India was a most tolerant nation and urged intellectuals and artistes who had returned their national awards in protest against incidents of intolerance to take them back.

The home minister’s reply came speeches by an array of MPs on the subject, including by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who attacked the government on the issue, urging it not to learn the “wrong lessons” from Pakistan and pleading that should listen to those who had been “disturbed” over the recent incidents.

Mr Singh, replying to the debate, said the government was open to a CBI probe into the Dadri lynching and the murder of Karnataka scholar M.M. Kalburgi. The home minister invited all protesting scholars and intellectuals for a discussion and assured them that the government will welcome any suggestion from them.

Mr Singh’s reply was constantly obstructed by the Opposition benches, which claimed the home minister was not referring to controversial remarks made by some Central ministers. Most of the Opposition MPs, mainly from the Congress, Trinamul Congress, CPI(M), RJD,

JD(U) and NCP, later walked out of the House, leaving only the Samajwadi Party, TRS and AIADMK MPs in the House as the home minister spoke.

“On behalf of the Prime Minister I want to assure that anybody who disturbs the amity of the nation will not be spared,” said Mr Singh. The minister said though the issue of intolerance was serious, it could also be self-destructive. By constantly highlighting some “fake protests” in the name of growing intolerance, the country’s image abroad cannot be smudged, he added.

This will deter global investors from investing in India, Mr Singh said, adding allegations of growing intolerance had affected Prime Minister Narendra Modi the most, who has been a victim of “opportunistic protests” against “intolerance”.

He said there were three major incidents of intolerance in the country’s history — Partition (though the minister said people belonging to his party’s thought process were not in favour of Partition on religious lines and sought a united India), the imposition of Emergency and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

Citing various other incidents like the Bhagalpur riots and the exodus of Kashmiri pandits from J&K, and the attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen in Kolkata, Mr Singh wondered where had tolerance gone away at that time, saying everybody knew who was in power then.

To questions by the Opposition on why Narendra Modi had not spoken out on the untoward incidents, Mr Singh countered by asking whether any of the previous Prime Ministers had ever commented on such incidents. The home minister said internal security was his responsibility and he had always spoken on such incidents.

He added: “If our government is at all intolerant, we are intolerant towards corruption, terrorism, filth, poverty and atrocities against the poor, girls and women.”

The minister said of the 39 persons who had returned their awards, a few had made a statement before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls that a person like Narendra Modi cannot and should not lead the country. “This is called intolerance,” Mr Singh added.

“One of them even said that Modi is a fascist,” he said, adding that people should respect the verdict of the people, and only then would they be called tolerant.

Citing examples of various Islamic nations which witness clashes within different sects of the same religion, Mr Singh said that in contrast India was home to various cultures and beliefs as well as religions where everybody lived in harmony.