Alwar Lynching Is ‘Conspiracy’ Because of PM’s ‘Popularity’: BJP Minister

Arjun Ram Meghwal reportedly did not condemn the murder, but instead, asked people to think about the root cause of the violence.

New Delhi: After a Muslim man was lynched for transporting cows in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs and water resource Arjun Ram Meghwal has reportedly termed it a part of a “conspiracy”, the result of the “rising popularity of Prime Minister Modi” and “a reaction to the impact of his schemes”.

A report in the Indian Express has quoted the minister as saying, “This is a state issue. We have issued an advisory and will stop it and the PM himself has spoken on it. But this is not a single incident. Jaise jaise Modiji popular hote jayenge, aisi aisi kuchch ghatnayen is desh mein aatin rahengi. Jaise Bihar ka chunav hua, award wapsi hua. UP ka chunav aayega, mob lynching aayega. 2019 ka chunav aa raha hai phir kuchch aayega, kabhi intolerance. Modiji ne jo yojnayen deen aur uska asar dharatal par dikh raha hai, uska ek reaction hai (Such incidents will rise as PM Modi’s popularity grows. Awards were returned around Bihar polls… mob lynchings happened around UP polls and intolerance will come up again around the 2019 elections. All this is a reaction to the impact of Modi’s schemes).”

Akbar Khan (28) and another man were transporting two cows to their village in Haryana through a forest area near Lalawandi in Alwar district on Friday, when a group of people severely thrashed Khan. He was rushed to a government hospital in Ramgarh, where doctors declared that he was brought dead.

According to NDTV, the minister did not condemn the murder, but instead, asked people to think about the root cause of the violence. “Mob lynching should not take place. We condemn it. But this is not the only incident. You will have to go back to history – why does this happen. We need to stop that. Give us some suggestions for this. What happened to the Sikhs in 1984, it was the biggest incident of mob lynching in this country,” he reportedly said.

The minister’s remarks came even as higher-ups in the party condemned the incident that took place hours before BJP president Amit Shah reached Jaipur to address the concluding session of the party’s state working committee meeting. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje took to Twitter to condemn the incident.