Members of the parliamentary panel on minority affairs on Thursday walked out from a meeting when Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi “refused” to condemn the recent incidents of lynchings.
“In today’s meeting all six MPs, including myself, requested Naqviji to condemn the lynching of innocent boy Junaid and other such incidents. We also wanted to place it on record in the proceedings of the meeting,” JD(U) MP Ali Anwar Ansari said.
The members also sought a two-minute silence be observed during the meeting as mark of respect for those killed by mobs. However, sources said, Mr. Naqvi rejected the MPs’ demand as it was “not part of the meeting’s agenda”.
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Mr. Ansari, along with other five other MPs — E T Mohammed Basheer from Muslim League, Idris Ali from TMC, Joy Abraham from Kerala Congress and M I Shanavas and Mausam Noor from Congress, walked out from the meeting of the consultative committee on minority affairs.
Mr. Ansari said all the victims in these lynching incidents belonged to minority communities and there is nothing wrong in condemning such incidents.
The sources said issues pertaining to the functioning of the ministry were supposed to be discussed in the meeting.
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The instance comes a day after a protest demonstrations named “Not in my Name” were held in the national capital and other parts of the country to condemn the recent mob killings.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Naqvi asserted that there was no atmosphere of fear or insecurity prevailing among the community. Suspecting the role of some “hostile forces” behind such incidents, he said such “tactics” will not be allowed to succeed.