The Congress party staged a walkout in Parliament to protest Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement on lynching.
Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said that the Home Minister’s statement was “not satisfactory”.
“The Home Minister’s statement in Lok Sabha on mob lynching was not satisfactory at all. That is why we staged a walkout from the house,” he said outside the House.
Criticising Singh’s statement that law and order is a state subject, Tharoor said, “This is not a game of ping pong that states and Centre keep shifting responsibilities.”
Speaking on the important issue of mob lynching across the country, the Home Minister had earlier today said that it is the responsibility of the local government to take strict action.
“I condemn it. Lynching happens on basis of rumours and fake news. But it is duty of the state governments to take strict action against such incidents. It’s a state subject,” he said underlining that the police and public order are state-subjects.
But Singh added that the Centre has not remained mum on the issue.
“The MHA had issued advisories to in 2016 and in the first week of July 2018. We had also told social media service providers to install checks in their system to stop the propagation of fake news, which is a major cause of such incidents,” the Home Minister said amid din created by the opposition bench in the lower house.
HM Shri @rajnathsingh makes a brief statement in Lok Sabha on incidents of mob lynching. pic.twitter.com/ff1GxjIYbQ
— HMO India (@HMOIndia) July 19, 2018
He added that his government has spoken to all the Chief Ministers in whose state mob lynching cases were reported.
While speaking on mob lynching, Rajnath Singh also said that “lynching has been happening before too”.
It was after Singh’s response to mob lynching that the Congress party staged a walkout.