BJP calls Rajiv Gandhi ‘father of mob lynching’; Thakur slams Rahul for ‘brokering’ barb in media

BJP leaders on Tuesday raised the issue of 1984 anti-Sikh riots and called former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi the “father of mob lynchings” and hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for attacking the government over the lynching incidents. Days after two cases of lynchings in Congress-ruled Punjab, Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Before 2014, the word ‘lynching’ was practically unheard of. #ThankYouModiji.” Two men were beaten to death in separate incidents, and they were both accused of sacrilege by Sikh religious leaders.

Information and Broadcasting Minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur said the 1984 riots in which thousands of Sikhs were killed were the “biggest example” of lynching. Thakur also slammed Gandhi for using the derogatory term “brokerage” for the media, when he was asked a question at a briefing, which he said was a matter of great shame.

Noting that the Congress leader has attacked journalists in this manner for the third time, he urged “large sections of the media”, who have always been speaking on such matters, to express their views on the matter as well. He said Gandhi’s thoughts were reminiscent of the Emergency when the rights of the media were curtailed. Speaking to reporters, Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said that hundreds of Sikhs were killed in the 1984 riots, for which some Congress leaders were to be blamed, and also referred to the 1989 Bhagalpur riots as if these were not lynchings. .