Pune / Killing in name of Lord Ram an insult of Hindu religion: Tharoor

Senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday slammed the Modi government over rising incidents of mob violence and deaths in the country. Speaking at an event in Pune on Sunday, he said that killing someone in the name of Hindu religion is an insult to the religion and Lord Ram, news agency ANI reported.

Tharoor said that the killings in the name of religion have seen a sudden rise in the last six years. He said that it all started with the killing of Mohsin Shaikh in Pune and then Mohd Akhlaq was killed because he was carrying beef.

“But it was reported later that it was not beef. Even if it was beef who gave anyone the right to kill a person?” he asked at an event of All India Professionals Congress (AIPC) in Pune on Sunday.

“Is this our Bharat? Is this what Hindu Dharam says? I am a Hindu but not of this kind,” he said.

The Congress leader noted that attackers also ask the victims to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’.

“This is an insult of Hindu dharma and of Lord Ram that someone uses his name to kill another person,” ANI quoted the Congress leader as saying.

He said that Pehlu Khan, a Haryana resident, had the licence to transport cattle, but he was also lynched. Without taking the name of the BJP, he said, “One election result gave so much power to such people that they do anything and kill anyone.”

On the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) idea of Hinduism, the Congress MP said that “it is a political ideology and does not have any connection with Hinduism”.

On the row over a common language in the country, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said that he was in favour of a three-language formula.