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Lok Sabha witnessed a stormy session when the Congress party walked out of Parliament . The party took this step after it expressed it’s unhappiness over the statement made by Home Minister Rajnath Singh regarding government stand towards curbing mob Lynchings in various parts of the country. Singh put the onus on state governments to maintain law and order .
Rajnath was responding to Congress leader K C Venugopal, who raised the issue of lynching, the attack on Swami Agnivesh in Jharkhand and trolling of external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
“I appeal for strict action against the perpetrators of such crimes,” the home minister said amid protests by Opposition leaders. But Singh’s reply did not satisfy the opposition and it promptly staged a walk out.
“The home minister’s statement in Lok Sabha was not satisfactory at all. That is why we staged a walkout from the House. This is not a game of ping pong that states and the Centre keep shifting responsibilities,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said. Tharoor’s office in Thiruvananthapuram was recently vandalised by BJP yuva morcha activists
The Congress had given an adjournment notice to discuss mob lynchings. The Congress also asked the government to pass a law on lynching.
Earlier, Venugopal said that while these mob lynching and physical attacks on people, including those with dissenting views, have become the order of the day, the government was maintaining a silence.
He also criticised Union minister Jayant Sinha for garlanding a group of men convicted by a trial court in a lynching case. The men were out on bail when Sinha met them.
“Is this the rule of the law? These are very serious issues. I request the government to secure the democratic environment of the country,” he said.
In the Rajya Sabha also, the opposition raised the issue of lynchings. “Are we not ashamed of our country?” CPI leader D Raja asked.
Last week, a software engineer from Hyderabad became the latest victim of lynching when a crowd of villagers in Kanataka’s Bidar district attacked the young man and three others suspecting them to be child lifters.
