The Opposition parties continued to condemn the killing of Mohammed Akhlaq by a mob accusing that he kept beef at his home. Many leaders visited his family members and neighbours and demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi to condemn such attacks against minorities.
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, who visited Dadri on Thursday, told Business Line that Akhlaq’s family should be relocated from the area. “In the last so many years, this village did not have any incidents of communal violence. The RSS has destroyed the security of minorities in this village,” she said adding that she has requested for a meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for relocating the family of Akhlaq from Dadri.
She said the defence put up by the BJP leaders, including Noida MP and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, was shocking. “He has no right to remain even as an MP, definitely not as a minister,” Karat said. “Instead of defending the victims, he is defending the accused. This shows a clear connection between the BJP and the assailants,” she said and urged the Prime Minister to cry for Akhlaq’s mother too.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister too pointed the figers towards the BJP. “A rumour does not have anything in it but a lot can happen because of it. Our Constitution is based on secularism. Our schemes are all based on this principle but some forces want to vitiate the atmosphere,” he said in Lucknow. “They want to rake up such issues. These forces talked about pink revolution. We will say today — you are in government now, so ban beef exports. You should build support for banning their export,” he said and added: “The world where you are roaming, marketing and promoting your country, just think once what kind of food they eat from dawn to dusk. That’s why we should not interfere in each other’s way of life,” he said, apparently pointing fingers at the Prime Minister.
The BJP reacted saying that the beef export is already banned. “The export of beef (meat of cow, oxen and calf) is prohibited,” Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Hyderabad MP and AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi, who also visited the family, said Yadav’s government is investigating a piece of meat and treating the victim as accused. “This wasn’t an attack over meat. He has been killed in the name of religion. This is a pre-planned, cold-blooded killing. It cannot be an accident. This is the thought which is against secularism, it is against the brotherhood of India. It sees Muslims with an eye of suspicion,” he said.
The All India Kisan Sabha, a Leftist farmers’ outfit, meanwhile, has demanded the lifting of ban on slaughter. “As far as peasantry is concerned, banning beef has economical dimension too. Selling animals is a source of income to support cultivation and livelihood of the farm households. The ban on slaughter has blocked that income source of cultivators who are facing deep distress and debt trap,” a statement by the AIKS said.