With Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh taking ill, the Government’s reply to the discussion in the Lok Sabha on communal violence has now been deferred to the next session in consultation with the Opposition.
Twice -- as the discussion resumed on Thursday afternoon and when it was wrapped up an hour-and-a-half later – Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said in view of Mr. Singh’s health problem, the reply could either be made by the Prime Minister or deferred till the next session. Other members of the Opposition also joined him in wishing Mr. Singh a speedy recovery.
The discussion in the afternoon resumed with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav dwelling on India’s composite culture that would be poorer if any one of the influences was taken away from it. Training his guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party for the shrill tone its leader Yogi Adityanath had taken in the House on Wednesday, he said: ``You target the Muslims but then dress your brides in jewels and clothes made by them, get your hair cut by them and use carpets woven by them.’’
Stating that this government had come to power ``glorifying Gujarat’’, Indian Union Muslim League leader E. T. Mohammad Basheer quoted extensively from Gujarat school textbooks and pondered aloud on the kind of future the State was shaping with such an education. Countering the ``secular lobby’’, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Prem Singh Chandumajra was critical of the dominant culture wherein those who were religious were looked down upon in the name of `secularism’.
Correcting him, Saugata Bose (Trinamool Congress) said: ``We are not against religion. We are only against religious prejudice, religious bigotry, religious majoritarianism…. I would like to say to this Government that when beautiful religious symbols are deployed in the interests of majoritarian triumphalism, then we face a very major problem in our country. That is what, I fear, is happening today. The victory of the ruling party in the general elections has emboldened the more extreme among its followers. Even more than the actual incidents of violence… are the underlying tensions and the sense of insecurity among the minorities.’’
