Two days after a group of prominent citizens wrote a to letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to end lynching and “religion-based hate crimes” , another group of public figures came out with a statement on Friday countering the allegations made in the letter.
“An open letter which has been published on July 23, 2019 and addressed to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has astonished us. Forty nine self- styled guardians and conscience keepers of the nation and of democratic values have expressed selected concern and have once again demonstrated a clear political bias and motive,” the statement said.
Signed by 62 prominent personalities, including Censor Board of Film Certification chief Prasoon Joshi, actor Kangana Ranaut, dancer Sonal Mansingh, director Madhur Bhandarkar the statement was titled “Against Selective Outrage & False Narratives” . It listed instances of political and religious violence where the signatories of the letter have “ strangely kept silent” . BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta, MLA Kalyan Chaubey, as well as actresses Parno Mitra and Kanchana Moitra, who recently joined BJP also signed the statement.
The statement said that the letter was an “attempt to foist a false narrative with the intention of denigrating the democratic ethos and norms of our collective functioning as a nation and people”.
Dismissing the earlier letter, the statement said, “Lynching is a social malady which has to dealt up front, Prime Minister has spoken out against it repeatedly and respective state governments are empowered to take action”. It also alleged that the letter was aimed at “tarnishing India’s international standing” and “negatively portray Prime Minister Modi’s untiring efforts”.
