NEW DELHI: Facing flak over “growing intolerance”, the Centre today said a “misinformation campaign” is on to blame it for incidents outside its purview and accused the opposition of “showing intolerance” towards the people’s mandate for Modi government.
Putting up a strong defense of the government, which has been criticized over the Dadri lynching and beef row, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said “some are trying to mislead and some are misled”, arguing that such incidents happened earlier too and the government has condemned them.
He said all the debate about beef and such issues was limited to some English media and others were not “bothered about this at all”.
“The government is not at fault for any of these things. Law and order is a state subject. How can anybody be unfair and criticize the government of India for something happening in UP, something happening in Karnataka…. How can they try to link the Prime Minister with all the things, I am unable to understand.
“There is a misinformation campaign going on. I will only say that some are misled and some are trying to mislead because of the propaganda. In this country of 120 crore, such incidents happened earlier also, they have happened in the recent past and they are condemnable. The party has condemned them. The government has condemned it and the Prime Minister himself has come out very strongly,” he said.
Hitting back at critics who have blamed the government for the alleged growing intolerance, Naidu said wryly that it was true that there was growing intolerance and added that it was among those who had lost elections.
Congress is not able to digest the reality that they have lost power, he said.
“They are becoming more and more intolerant towards the mandate of the people. People have given a clear cut mandate to Narendra Modi and these people do not want Parliament to function,” he said, attacking Congress. The opposition party does not want him to do well internationally, he said.
Naidu also rejected criticism of Delhi Police by Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy over police entering Kerala House following a complaint that beef was being served there.
“If somebody passes an information that an untoward incident is going to happen at a particular place, is it not the responsibility of police to take care of it? The police visited and make enquiries and came back,” he said, adding that the police went there after being told about a right wing outfit’s protests.–PTI
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