Congress attacks BJP on rising tide of mob lynchings

Stressing that ‘absolute anarchy’ and ‘mob frenzy’ have become new symbols of the country under Prime Minister Modi’s rule, Congress on Monday blasted the BJP government over spurt in mob violence in the country.

Reacting to a growing epidemic of lynch killings, spokesperson AICC Abhishek Manu Singhvi asserted that social media (Whats App driven) rumours and deteriorating law and order situation has unleashed ‘lynching movement’ in the country.

“One can not be definite about the reason of such killings, but one can be certainly definite that under the Narendra Modi government, this new phenomena is getting a definite political patronage,” he alleged in a statement.

Alleging that the State has completely abdicated its responsibility, he asserted that “in many cases it (State) has assisted, aided and abetted such acts of violence and even justified and condoned them.”

Referring to recent lynchings over rumours of child lifting, he claimed that “in just past month alone 28 persons have been killed in lynchings including five people in Maharashtra’s Dhule (yesterday), two were lynched earlier in Maharashtra, seven in Jharkhand, four people in Tripura, two people each in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana and one each in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh. These are just the recorded fatalities. The number of unrecorded ones is far greater and unimaginable.”

Commenting on the recent case from Tripura where three persons including an anti-rumour campaigner were beaten to death, he said, “An 11-year-old boy was found dead with cut marks on his body in Mohanpur and rumours spread that his kidneys had been removed. The incident triggered clashes between residents and policemen, leaving more than 10 people injured on both sides. Tripura Minister for Education and Law Ratan Lal Nath, who visited the boy’s family, was heard telling a gathering in a video that ‘the kidney was taken out of the boy’s body after making a round cut’. Nath also said that the incident was linked to ‘kidney smugglers’ with probable ‘international’ connections.”

“Shockingly, later when the Tripura CM, Shri Biplab Deb visited the boy, he said that that both the ‘kidneys’ of the boy were intact, after the post mortem report. This clearly demonstrates how a BJP Minister added fuel to the fire,” he added.

Condemning BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, he claimed that “Dubey recently said that he will pay the legal fees for four people who have been accused lynching two men in Godda, Jharkhand.” He also cited the example of Nityanand Mahto, the media in-charge of BJP's Ramgarh unit, Jharkhand who was arrested over mob lynching of a man.

“BJP would do better to take note of the anger which is engulfing the citizens of the country against vigilantism by their own party men,” he said, adding that “four years have passed, and we have seen enough platitudes, speeches and alibis, it is time for some corrective action.”