Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, 21 December, said that the word 'lynching' was practically unheard of before 2014, suggesting that such incidents have been on the rise since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.
Taking a jab at the BJP government, Gandhi tweeted the statement with the hashtag #ThankYouModiJi.
The Congress leader's comments follow recent incidents of lynching in Punjab where two people were beaten to death in less than 24 hours for "desecrating Sikh religious sentiments." The Congress-ruled state has urged the Centre to get President Ram Nath Kovind's nod on two Bills for stringent punishment in sacrilege cases in the state.
In response to Rahul Gandhi's tweet, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said, "The biggest example of 'lynching' is the incidents that took place in 1984, after the death of former PM Indira Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi's reply to a media question today over 'lynching' reminds us of the era of Emergency."
Union Minister Ashwini Choubey also reacted to Gandhi's statement and said that "hundreds of Sikhs" were killed during the 1984 riots. He added that some Congress leaders had been accused in several such cases.
"Mobs killed Sikhs by burning tires around their neck. Wasn't it lynching?" he was quoted as saying by PTI.
BJP IT wing head Amit Malviya took a dig at the Congress for justifying the "blood-curdling genocide" of Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination.
(With inputs from NDTV and News18.)
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