Honorable - Prime Minster Shri Modi Ji
The BJP should condemn Giriraj
Singh’s open support for Bhansali’s attackers
Union minister of state for micro, small and medium
enterprises, Giriraj Singh likes nothing more than to wade into controversies
to display his patriotic and religious credentials. Mr. Singh has in the past
come up with remarks on the need for Hidus to have more children in order to
prevent the com munity from being overrun by Muslims – based on nothing more
than his prejudices.
Mr. Singh is a law-maker who has no business advocating
violence against anyone. If anything, he should have sought action against
those who took the law into their own hands and assaulted Bhansali. The ruling
BJP, which should have condemned Mr. Singh’s remarks and taken action against
him, is silent. This is what encourages people like him to become repeat
offenders.
Hoodlums bullying Bhansali is only
the latest example of the state abetting intolerance
Are we fast reaching that point in the world’s largest
democracy where freedom of expression guaranteed by the constitutions is
subject to the level of intolerance of any pressure group willing to resort to
violence to enforce its writ?.
Bhansali was shooting at the Jaigarh fort near Jaipur for his
film on fabled Chittorgarh queen Padmavati. The Karni Sena hoodlums felt that
he was portraying their queen Padmavati in an unfavorable light. There has been
not a word of condemnation of this incident by chief minister Vasundhara Raje
who is, no doubt, aware that the Rajputs are a powerful vote bank.
Akhilesh Khandelwal, a BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh, has
gone further. He has issued something akin to a fatwa, where anybody who performs
the pious duty of throwing a shoe at Bhansali will be given an award of Rs.
10,000/-.
When these new contestations take place, challenging the
self-righteous hegemony of the powerful, will the state stand up for the law or
align itself with the perpetrators? Will those who behave they can use violence
to silence those they disagree with continue to go scot-free?
These are the glaring examples of state sponsored lawlessness
activities?
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