Indian Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi flayed the BJP-led Indian government over its perceived ‘intolerance’ and advised it to not learn the ‘wrong lessons’ from Pakistan.
“I request the government, please do not learn the wrong lessons from Pakistan,” Rahul said, while addressing the Indian parliament on Tuesday.
“Be tolerant. Listen to your people, embrace your own people. Mahatma Gandhi gave voice to the people. Pakistan became a failure because their leaders crushed voices of their people…were intolerant. Let us not learn the wrong lessons,” the Congress vice president added.
Rahul also lashed out at Indian Minister of State for External Affairs General (retired) V K Singh for his alleged likening of the killing of two Dalit children to the killing of dogs.
“Our prime minister allowed this man to continue as minister. Ambedkar spent his entire life ….and wrote the constitution so that the two children are not burnt. The prime minister is unable to see this contradiction,” Rahul said, amid cries of ‘shame-shame’ from the opposition benches.
Further, the Congress leader lamented that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained silent after the Dadri lynching incident despite the fact that the son of the person killed is an Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel. “The ultimate responsibility for his protection is with the prime minister who remained silent,” he said.
On September 28, residents of the Bisara village in Dadri had attacked Muhammad Akhlaq, 50, beating him to death and severely injuring his 22-year-old son Danish after rumours had spread that they had slaughtered cows and were consuming beef.
Rahul urged the Indian prime minister to respect those who have been perturbed by the rising intolerance in India and address their concerns.
“People like Narayana Murthy, Raghuram Rajan and Pushpa Mittra Bhargava are among the many protesting… They are disturbed like millions of other people. Respect them and try to understand what is disturbing them. Go and listen to them,” he said.
This article originally appeared on NDTV.
