On Sept. 28, in a village less than 60 miles from New Delhi, a Hindu priest announced in a local temple (under threat by some hot heads, he claims) that a Muslim family was consuming beef.

Shortly afterward, a frenzied (Hindu) mob, wielding sticks, swords and cheap pistols barged into the family’s house and pulled out Akhlaq & his 22-year-old son, Danish, accusing the family of having slaughtered a cow and consuming it. They beat the men with such rapturous fury that within minutes the father was dead and his son in a coma.

Times cannot be treated as normal if the President of India feels the need to issue a public advisory. What can explain the inexplicable silence of the otherwise hyper-expressive Narendra Modi.

While, leaders of the political parties have left no stone unturned in trivializing the issue. PM Modi did not issue a single tweet, nor posted a Facebook statement expressing regret or offering condolence for this dead citizen.

The Prime Minister finds himself unable to condemn utterances of his own party leaders & ministers. Isn’t this what happened in Godhra, when Modi was the Chief Minister.

PM Speaks – Only too little too late 

Less than 24 hours after the President’s subtle reprimand, India’s Prime Minister did speak – Not against the murderers of Akhlaq. Not even on the provocative comments by his party men/women in Dadri. No, not even on the urgent need to put an end to beef politics. All this can wait. After all, elections in Bihar happen just once in five years.

Its all Politics for Narendra Modi – Why else would he choose an election rally to indirectly mention the incident. What are the compulsions of Narendra Modi who has brought to his party 284 seats in the Lok Sabha?

Why Laloo alone comes to his mind; and people like Mahesh Sharma, Sanjeev Balyan, Sakshi Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath, Sangeet Som, Azam Khan and AIMIM leader Assaduddin Owaisi are allowed to get away with their shameless statements?

Akhlaq’s family members can wait. And the President of India should learn to wait. Prime Minister of India is busy consolidating his position. And for this he must win Bihar. India’s core civilizational values can wait too

While only hinting on the raging row over the Dadri lynching incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Hindus and Muslims should decide whether to fight each other or together overcome poverty while asking the people to ignore “irresponsible” statements of politicians.

Its to be noted that the above statement comes at his 4th Bihar election rally this week and that too after blowing all the jibes on the beef row towards BJP opponents like Laloo.

“The country has to stay united,” Modi asserted. “I have said it earlier also. We have to decide whether Hindus should fight Muslims or poverty. Muslims should decide whether to fight Hindus or poverty,” he added.

The silence does not douse flames, it fans conspiracy theories

Adding Fuel to the Fire – Our Politicians whom ‘WE’ elected

Why are these shallow leaders not expelled? Every time a party has been questioned, their answer has been simple -point fingers at the other parties.

Outrageous Things Leaders Have Said – For the record, BJP leads here. 

Mahesh Sharma 

Modi’s Culture Minister & BJP Leader Mahesh Sharma, a moral idiot recently opined that India’s late President Abdul Kalam was patriotic “despite being a Muslim,” and dubbed the vicious beating an “accident.” He consoled the family by noting that at least the 17-year-old daughter of the slain man was untouched!

Azam Khan
Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan took one step further and wrote to United Nations on the condition of Muslims in India.

He goes on further to hint on a new partition of India, “There should be a round table conference on what will be the new map of India and how people will live in the country” and “Aaj poori duniya dekh rahi hai ki Babri se le ke Dadri tak ka mansooba kya tha”.

He clubs the incident with the demolition of Babri Masjid to harness the power of hatred.

Sangeet Som 

BJP MLA Sangeet Som, infamous for making controversial speeches during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots & one of the accused, declared, “Agar nirdoshon ke khilaf karyawahi ki gayi, to munh-tod jawab hamne pehle bhi diya hai aur abh bhi dena jante hain (If action is taken against innocent, we have given a befitting reply earlier and can do so again). We can give a reply whenever we want.” He made this statement at a temple on the outskirts of Bisara, near where the incident occurred.

Asaduddin Owaisi

“This murder was premeditated. He has been killed in the name of religion. It is an attack on our community. It cannot be an accident. All of this is being propagated by the state and central governments,” Owaisi says. The Hyderabad MP also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the killing. “This mother has seen her son getting beaten to death in front of her. Where are his condolences?”

Owaisi also slammed Union Minister Mahesh Sharma for describing the killing in the Dadri village as “an accident”. “He is the country’s Culture Minister. It is unfortunate that a minister who has taken an oath on the Constitution does not have the courage and intellectual honesty to condemn the incident unconditionally.”

Tarun Vijay 

BJP MP Tarun Vijay said, it wasn’t the Hindu community’s responsibility to maintain peace and the Muslim community should remain mute.

“Why responsibility to keep peace and maintain calm is always put on the Hindus alone? Be a victim and maintain silence in face of assaults!!” tweeted the former editor the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) weekly in Hindi, Panchajanya.

Muslims & Minorities in India – whatever the politicians may think – have a right to live with their heads held high as anyone else. They cannot & must not be ‘dumped’ or ‘subdued’.

As Indians we need to fix our dysfunctional democracy. The idea of democracy cannot begin and end with elections alone. Until then we will continue to lose lives like Mohammad Akhlaq’s because of let’s call it “the politics of food “.

Is anyone there listening???