The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday said that lynching is an alien concept which has now invaded ‘Bharat’ to defame Hindus, he was speaking at the annual Vijayadashmi festival in Nagpur.
The RSS Chief said, “Branding some incidents of social violence as ‘lynching’ is actually meant to defame our country and the Hindu society. The aim is to create fear among some communities. Lynching is alien to Bharat and actually has its references elsewhere. The word lynching now tagged with Hindus…is not an Indian word.”
For the world, Bharat is an absolute necessity. Bharat has to stand on its own strong foundation of nature and culture.#RSSVijayaDashmi pic.twitter.com/K3W29xG5MQ
— Raj kumar Odisha (@RajkumarNath16) October 8, 2019
“We hear people of a community beat people from another community. It is not that only a certain community targets people. The reverse also happens. There are cases where what has actually happened gets twisted,” Mohan Bhagwat said, adding, “self-centred forces blame a particular community to stoke the fire between communities”.
Bhagwat then declared that society must act by “remaining within the limits of Constitution”, no matter what the “difference of opinion is, or howsoever provocative actions might have taken place”.
In his speech, Bhagwat also voiced his displeasure against such horrific incidents and urged the citizens to live in harmony, claiming that RSS volunteers are “brought up with that ‘sanskaar‘ (value)”.
Congress Tears Into Bhagwat’s Comment
The Maharashtra unit of the Congress criticised Mohan Bhagwat’s comments, terming them as a “lie” and accusing the RSS of “spreading falsehood”.
“It is as much a lie to say that RSS has nothing to do with lynchings as it is a lie to say that RSS is a cultural organisation, is anti-casteist, pro-reservation and respects the Constitution and tricolour,” Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, adding, “Spreading falsehood is the ideology of the Sangh Parivar”.
The Logical India Asks
The Union Home Ministry in Parliament session on July 16, 2019, revealed that hate crimes against Dalits and minorities in Uttar Pradesh spiked by as much as 43 per cent in the past three years.
If lynching is a western concept, then why were Dalit kids in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district beaten on September 25, 2019, for defecating in open after their parents are denied rights to the common well?
If lynching is a western concept, then why were Pehlu Khan and his two sons in April 2017 beaten up on suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan’s Alwar?
What led to the lynching of Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das in June 2018 in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district on rumours of child-lifting?
Also Read: FIR Against 49 Celebrities Who Wrote To PM Modi About Growing Incidents Of Lynching
