India Condemns Religious Violence After Killing of Muslim Man

Death renews debate over religious intolerance in India 

 

NEW DELHI—India’s government condemned religious violence, as political pressure swelled a week after the mob killing of a Muslim man accused of slaughtering a cow renewed a debate over religious intolerance in the country.
The country’s Home Ministry said it had “zero tolerance for any attempt to weaken the secular fabric of the nation” and was concerned about nationwide incidents with “communal overtones,” including the killing of a man in his early 50s in a village near the nation’s capital.
The killing sparked anew a debate in India over whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise to power has emboldened his right-wing Hindu supporters eager to push a religious agenda—and whether the Indian leader and his government are doing enough to stop it. The opposition has criticized Mr. Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party has deep roots in Hindu nationalism, for not condemning the incident.
A spokesman from his party on Tuesday referred to a response from Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who said, “It is the responsibility of every Indian in his actions or in his comments to stay clear of unfortunate and condemnable incidents of this kind.”
As details of last week’s killing emerged in recent days, a high-decibel political fight has played out on television new channels, including images of the nation’s top leaders visiting the bereaved family in their impoverished village home.
The opposition Congress party says such killings are the result of efforts by ruling party politicians and workers to push their cultural program and build a tense environment in an effort to attract Hindu votes for the party. BJP leaders in turn accuse Congress and other opposition parties of trying to exploit deadly incidents to derail government work and make political gains.
In the state of Bihar, where crucial state elections begin this month, the dominant rhetoric appeared to shift from development issues that had dominated campaigns to debates over the slaughter of cows, considered holy in Hinduism.
Opinion polls show a neck-and-neck contest in an election that is being seen as a referendum on Mr. Modi’s leadership. Sushil Modi, a senior BJP leader in Bihar with no family relation to Mr. Modi, said in a tweet that if voted to power, his party would prohibit the slaughter of cows.
Hindus make up 80% of India’s population and many of them don’t eat beef, unlike the country’s 170 million Muslims. The killing of cows has always been a fraught issue in India, but it has become more politically charged in recent months. An increasing number of states governments have tightened curbs on the consumption of beef since Mr. Modi took power.
In an advisory to state governments late on Monday, the Home Ministry directed them to “take action without exception” against anyone “exploiting religious emotions or sentiments.” Police in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where the killing took place in the village of Bisara, said they had arrested eight people and were investigating at least two others over the killing.
The government’s response followed criticisms that Mr. Modi, prolific on social media, hasn’t condemned the killing. The BJP says senior government ministers have made statements on the issue and that Mr. Modi need not respond to every incident of violence.
Since coming to power, Mr. Modi has made some broad appeals for religious harmony. In February, he strongly condemned religious intolerance after a series of attacks on churches in the capital and campaigns against intermarriage with Muslims. “My government will not allow any religious group, belonging to the minority or the majority, to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly,” Mr. Modi had said.
But Mr. Modi has not spoken out against specific episodes of violence or against offensive remarks by individuals associated with his party. Analysts say he doesn’t want to alienate his core support base by doing so. Mr. Modi began his journey in public life at a Hindu nationalist organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and groups linked to it were his most dogged campaigners in elections last year.
“Those who spread this poison enjoy [Mr. Modi’s] patronage,” wrote Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a political commentator, in an opinion piece in the Indian Express newspaper on Saturday. “This government has set a tone that is threatening, mean-spirited and inimical to freedom.”
Hindu activists have been running a campaign against what they call “love jihad” and describe as attempts by Muslim men to trick Hindu women into marriage and force them to convert to Islam.
After last week’s killing, Tarun Vijay, a senior BJP leader, wrote in a newspaper article saying, “Lynching a person merely on suspicion is absolutely wrong,” and, “Muslim silence on Hindu woes is often taken as support for intolerant Islamists.” India’s culture minister Mahesh Sharma, who called the incident unfortunate, said it should not be given “communal color.”
In a televised interview on Monday, the victim’s son urged Indians to maintain communal harmony, saying his family had always lived in harmony with its Hindu neighbors until last week’s incident. “I don’t want politics on this issue,” he said.