Engage in debate not vandalism to express views: Jaitley

PTI

New Delhi

Union minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday deprecated the rising incidents of intolerance and vandalism which he said was an “extremely disturbing trend” and called for a “civilised mode” of discussing and debating issues.

He also said the BJP has put on notice some of its own leaders who had made controversial statements in the wake of the Dadri lynching incident making it clear that the party has “outright shown our disagreement with these kinds of statements”.

Jaitley's disapproval of vandalism resorted to by people to register contrarian views come against the backdrop of the Shiv Sena forcing cancellation of a music concert by Pakistani legend Ghulam Ali and talks between Indian and Pakistani cricket board Chiefs and blackening of the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni in Mumbai and ink attack on Jammu and Kashmir MLA Engineer Rashid here by a Hindu fringe outfit.

His strong words also come amidst increasing incidents of intolerance ever since the Dardi incident in Uttar Pradesh after which a truck conductor from Kashmir valley was killed in a petrol bomb attack by a mob in Jammu on suspicion of smuggling cow for slaughter and killing of a Muslim youth in Himachal Pradesh on similar suspicion.

“All right-thinking sections will have to distance themselves from these kind of methodologies,” he said.

Jaitley said that those using these methods, including copy cat vandalism, must also “introspect” whether they are adding to the quality of Indian democracy or are they really reducing the credibility of India as a country before the eyes of the world itself.

Quote: Those using these methods, including copy cat vandalism, must also “introspect” whether they are adding to the quality of Indian democracy or are they really reducing the credibility of India as a country before the eyes of the world itself - Arun Jaitley