Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been targeted for days over his silence on the mob killing of a Muslim man over beef rumours in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, today used a rally in Bihar to deliver a strong message.
On Thursday, Modi appealed for religious unity, saying the nation would only prosper “when Hindus and Muslims unite and fight” against poverty, instead of against each other.
The prime minister said Indians should ignore “irresponsible” statements by politicians - including ones made by himself - and work together.
“Both Muslims and Hindus need to fight poverty together…”
Modi’s comments come just hours after legislators from his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) punched and shoved an opposition Muslim member in a state parliament over eating beef. One crucial aspect of this agenda is to ban beef throughout India, depriving millions - Muslims, Christians and millions of Hindus, too - of their right to eat it. Most beef sold across India is buffalo meat. President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday called for officially secular India’s tradition of tolerance to be upheld, in what was seen as an attempt to calm raging anger over the issue. 50-year-old Mohammed Iqlakh was lynched to death, while his son Danish left severely injured by a mob on September 28 following allegations that the family had consumed beef.
The sale and consumption of beef has become something of a political football in the country since Modi came to power in May 2014, with his party advocating a nationwide ban that is already being enforced in multiple states. It followed a decision last month by authorities in Jammu and Kashmir, which is ruled by the BJP and its allies, to enforce a ban on eating beef. “Modi has not said a word against those in his party who have been making the most obnoxious statements”, Malhotra said.
He also criticized the killing of Akhlaq, writing: “Lynching a person merely on suspicion is absolutely wrong”. The tide that was unleashed by this religious politics led to the 1992 demolition of the Babri Mosque - an event which set off years of communal strife between Hindus and Muslims as attacks and counterattacks persisted. Now the second phase of BJP, under the decidedly more firebrand Narendra Modi - infamous for his alleged role as a facilitating Chief Minister in the Gujarat Massacre of 2002 - is headed for what can be an even worse phase of religious conflict. “Only communal harmony and brotherhood will take the nation forward”.
In his article “On the Political Uses of Disgust” in the 2011 anthology “Gujarat Beyond Gandhi”, Rutgers University professor Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi writes that eating meat is increasingly tied with social feelings of disgust in India, something Modi has exacerbated.
“We don’t agree with the brand of politics that Modi and his party practice”, said Muhammad Asgar, who lives in Dumrawah village, about 20 km (12 miles) from Banka, where Modi addressed the rally.
