Rattled by Rahul’s Alwar tweet, BJP ministers call him ‘merchant of hate’, resort to trolling

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi today said hatred had replaced humanity in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "brutal" 'New India' and cited a media report which claimed that policemen in Alwar took three hours to take a dying victim of a lynch mob to a hospital as they took a tea-break enroute.

The 28-year-old victim was allegedly lynched in Rajasthan's Alwar district Friday night by a group of people who accused him of smuggling cows. Khan and his friend Aslam were taking two cows to their village in Haryana through a forested area near Lalawandi in Alwar district last week when five men attacked them. Three people have been arrested.

"Policemen in #Alwar took 3 hrs to get a dying Rakbar Khan, the victim of a lynch mob, to a hospital just 6 KM away. Why? They took a tea-break enroute," Gandhi said on Twitter. "This is Modi's brutal 'New India' where humanity is replaced with hatred and people are crushed and left to die," he added.

While BJP’s Twitter handled reacted with a poem on Rahul Gandhi, its ministers including Piyush Goyal and Smriti Irani resorted to trolling Congress Rahul Gandhi soon after he criticised PM Modi and demanded to know why it took three hours before the victim was taken to a hospital which was just a few kilometres from the lynching site.

Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal not only called Gandhi a "Merchant of hate", he went a step ahead and accused him of playing divisive politics.

Union minister Smriti Z Irani used the term "vulture politics" to describe Gandhi's politics. “Not a single instance goes by where he doesn't attempt to rupture social bonds for electoral gains,” she wrote on Twitter.

However, BJP’s reaction to Gandhi’s tweet have evoked sharp reactions. “Dear Mr Goyal, perhaps you need to hang your head in shame for having reduced India to lynchistan instead of garlanding alleged lynchers and raping the tricolour on them,” noted journalist Swati Chaturvedi said.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Monday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of lynching of in Alwar, triggering protests from the ruling BJP and others.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress MP from Alwar Karan Singh Yadav said that it was the "fourth such incident in the state".

He alleged that self-proclaimed cow protectors were behind the Saturday's attack, and also attacked the Rajasthan Police for not taking the victim to hospital in time.

“The government is encouraging such incidents (lynchings) in the country. This government does not want the situation in the country to improve. We will raise the issue in the Parliament today,” Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge was quoted as saying by ANI.

With agency inputs