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New Delhi, November 30: The debate over the intolerance issue and the rising insecurity in the Lower House of the Parliament during the third day of the Winter Session turned the whole flow into a heated argument. Reacting on the allegations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi not doing doing anything specific to control the issue and intellectuals returning their awards, Bhartiya Janata Party MP Meenakshi Lekhi attacked the Opposition for making the issue big and misleading the people of country.
Expressing her views on the intolerance issue and the award returning issue, Lekhi asked the intellectuals where were they when incidence of murders of writers took place in different states in India. Speaking at the Lok Sabha she slammed the artist for making a law and order issue of the state into a controversial one by returning their awards given to them by the then Congress regime. Lekhi said, “The murder of M M Kalburgi and Goving Pansare were law and order issue of the state, how can the Centre be blamed for that! Law and order is a state subject and it is state responsibility.” (ALSO READ: Intolerance in Lok Sabha: House adjourned over Mohd Salim’s remark against Rajnath Singh)
Slamming the writers for returning the Sahitya Akademi Awards and the National awards, Lekhi said that those who are returning the prestigious award over the killings of Dalit children in Faridabad, must know that the issue happened due to personal animosity, but not due to rage over minority. And the Dadri issue took place due to the failure of Law and Order situation in the state, not because of rage over a minority, she added. “More than 10 incidents took place in last 1-5 years like these, why they were not debated during that time?”
On the dog comment by Union Minister General (Retd.) V K Singh, she said that twisting of words for political gains must not be encouraged in the country and people who do these, must be brought down under the preview of Law and Order situation of the state. Speaking about Salman Rushdie and the book ban she said, “Salman Rushdie was not allowed to appear in a video conference in Jaipur in 2012. Whose government was there that time? Out of the 35 books banned in India in the last 68 years, 30 were banned by Congress and only 5 were banned by BJP on the orders of Pune court. So, why people blame us on intolerance? People need to think positively and act accordingly.” (ALSO READ: Parliament Winter Session: Government readies for tough week over ‘intolerance’)
Making her views very clear on the intolerance issue by slamming the intellectuals and the Opposition for diverting the actual issues of poverty and unemployment, Lekhi said, “India is a tolerant country and if someone wants to see what intolerance is, then they should visit the neighbouring counties like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. They should see how people are suffering each day, how women are being harassed and humiliated, how children cry out of hunger and how youth are taking the help of weapon to survive. That is called intolerance. So think before you speak. Individual opinions in the country were respected and will continue to respected, but will not be tolerated if any negative actions performed either verbally or physically.”
Concluding her speech amid uproar in the Parliament, Lekhi said, “We, the people of India believe in logic and date. The issue of intolerance is unnecessarily being hyped due to political agenda and it is inappropriate according to the Constitution of India. As per the Constitution, there are states and laws, which should take care of the issues pertaining to violence and intolerance, but certainly Centre should not be blamed for it.” (ALSO READ: Parliament Winter Session: Mayawati seeks effective steps to control intolerance, says ready to support GST Bill)
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