Parties jump in to stir the beef cauldron

The political discourse in western Uttar Pradesh was further vitiated on Monday with leaders from the BJP and Samajwadi Party, who are suspected of roles in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal violence, making statements over the lynching of a 50-year-old Muslim man over ‘suspicions’ of beef-eating last week.

Uttar Pradesh MLA Sangeet Som and Union Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjiv Balyan, both BJP leaders accused of fanning communal violence during the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013, commented that Hindu sentiments should be respected and claimed that there was “widespread” cow slaughter in Uttar Pradesh. Equally strident was Azam Khan of the Samajwadi Party who wanted to approach the United Nations over the BJP-RSS’ complicity in inciting communal violence.

The BJP’s Central Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh also defended Sangeet Som over his statement that a “befitting reply will be given as was done in Muzaffarnagar” if “innocents” were framed. “In a democracy, if an innocent is forcibly made a culprit then it amounts to murder of democracy. I don’t think there is anything objectionable in what he has said. The Samajwadi government has done nothing in the State. They (critics) have nothing to attack us on the issue of good governance and development. So they are raising irrelevant issues,” said Singh.

Som, an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, had visited Bishhara on Monday where Mohammad Akhlaq Saifi was lynched by a mob over rumours of consuming beef about a week ago. Violating Prohibitory Orders in the area where residents remain polarised on communal lines, Som made provocative statements accusing the Samajwadi Party-led UP government of being biased against the Hindus.

“After the cow slaughter, no action has been taken against the accused. Instead, in a completely one-sided action, innocents are being framed. We won’t tolerate this,” said Som. “ Kanoon kanoon ki tarah kaam kare. Varna hum pahle bhi muhtod jawah de chuke hai aura age bhi denge (The law should take its own course. Otherwise, we will give as befitting a reply as we have given earlier),” he said, in a threatening invocation of the violence in Muzaffarnagar, where Muslims were primarily targeted and turned out from their homes.

Sanjiv Balyan, Minister of State and another accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, talked about prevalence of cow slaughter in UP. “The issue should not be linked to communalism and to any party base. Whatever happened was wrong and unfortunate. But why [do] such incidents happen? Look at any district in the State, cow slaughter houses are set up everywhere. The UP government has not been able to take effective action. Cow slaughter is banned in UP. It should be banned. If cow slaughtering is being done, the State government should take strict action,” Balyan said. SP’s Azam Khan intervened in the discourse with his own rhetoric. “The lynching was pre-planned and executed by the BJP. The RSS is looking for issues to divide communities. I will write a letter to the UN,” said Azam Khan.

The Congress, on its part, announced a series of protests against the “divisive politics of the BJP, SP and the AIMIM”.

Party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Pramod Tiwari said the entire country is witnessing “vitriolic and divisive hate campaign being unleashed by these three parties”. The former UPCC president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been maintaining a deafening silence on the inflammatory, provocative and incendiary statements aimed at rabble-rousing by his own Union Ministers. “It’s a well-thought-out seditious agenda aided and abetted by Modi’s co-conspirators of the ilk of SP, Ministers and Owaisi brothers,” he added.

“Do the statements of Union Ministers, Sanjeev Balyan and Mahesh Sharma and BJP MLA Sangeet Som have your implied support and tacit approval? What about the cardinal principle of ‘collective responsibility’ of council of Ministers? What about your oft-repeated solemn promise of sabka saath, sabka vikaas ?” he asked.

The CPI(M) condemned the “hate speech” made by Sangeet Som in Dadri. “The relevant provisions of the law should be invoked against Som and he should be arrested immediately. While brazenly justifying the murder of Aklaq he asserted that all those arrested were “innocent” and demanded their release,” the party said.

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