The debate on whether the country is witnessing ‘growing intolerance’ reached a new turn on Monday, with reports that Congress president Sonia Gandhi will lead a march to Rashtrapati Bhawan and submit a memorandum to the President.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, not one to let things pass, raked up the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in response, to which the Congress responded by talking about the 2002 Gujarat riots. Somewhere the root issue being discussed got lost in determining whose riot was cleaner than whose.
However, on the quiet Sunday which preceded today’s heated up political discourse, Home Minister Rajnath Singh made the most sensible statement on the issue—something that should ideally have been the government’s line.
He said, “How the Prime Minister can be targeted with those issues is beyond my understanding. It is really difficult to understand why the Union government is being held responsible for it”.
He said that it was ‘wrong’ to attack the PM for something that was essentially a state subject. He suggested that the instead of returning the honour, those dissenting should meet the PM for dialogue and suggest ways to handle the situation. This is a far better line than the one articulated by the government so far, in which it has called the protests ‘manufactured’ and ‘politically motivated’.
Rajnath’s advice to dissenters promotes dialogue, and assures protestors that the government is willing to talk to them, and look into the issues raised. It is a departure from blatant denial. The President himself speaking on the issue of ‘intolerance’ affords it credibility. It cannot be denied by the motion of a hand, and combative punch lines.
Dialogue and furnishing numbers is the only way to calm suspicions, and frayed nerves.