'Merchant of hate': BJP attacks Rahul Gandhi over remark on Alwar lynching

The BJP and Congress had a war of words on Monday over the alleged lynching of a man in Rajasthan’s Alwar by cow vigilantes. 

While Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi slammed the Centre and said that hatred had replaced humanity in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "brutal" 'New India', senior BJP ministers called Gandhi ‘MERCHANT OF HATE (sic)’ and accused him of doing ‘VULTURE POLITICS (sic).’

"Policemen in #Alwar took 3 hrs to get a dying Rakbar Khan, the victim of a lynch mob, to a hospital just 6 KM away. Why? They took a tea-break enroute," Gandhi said on Twitter.

"This is Modi's brutal 'New India' where humanity is replaced with hatred and people are crushed and left to die," he added in the tweet. 

Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal led the attack against Rahul Gandhi. ‘Stop jumping with joy every time a crime happens, Mr Rahul Gandhi. The state has already assured strict & prompt action. You divide the society in every manner possible for electoral gains & then shed crocodile tears. Enough is Enough. You are a MERCHANT OF HATE (sic),’ Goyal said in a tweet.

Another senior minister Smriti Irani accused Gandhi of doing ‘vulture politics.’ ‘Rahul Gandhi’s family presided over the worst form of hate in 1984, Bhagalpur & Nellie & many other instances. It is shameful that he is doing the same through VULTURE POLITICS. Not a single instance goes by where he doesn't attempt to rupture social bonds for electoral gains,’ Irani said in a tweet.

‘Mr Rahul Gandhi, STOP using a crime for political gains. The local police is already on the case. Justice will be served. Stop sowing seeds of hatred in society simply for a few votes,’ Information & Broadcasting minister Rajyavardhan Rathore said on the microblogging site. 

Haryana resident Rakbar Khan and his friend Aslam were taking two cows to their village in Haryana through a forested area near Lalawandi in Alwar district last week when five men attacked them. Three people have been arrested.

The horrific incident comes despite staunch warning by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh when he said in the Lok Sabha that such incidents won’t be tolerated. 

Singh had said that it was the states’ responsibility to prevent such incident.

Fake news and rumour mongering was leading to lynchings, Singh said in the Lok Sabha. He also said that the social media sites have been asked to regulate fake news.

In protest against Singh’s statement, the Opposition staged a walkout expressing dissatisfaction with Union Minister’s statement on incidents of mob violence. 

The Union Minister’s statement coincided the Supreme Court’s observation where the top court urged Parliament to consider enacting a new law to deal with lynching and cow vigilantism stating that "horrendous acts of mobocracy" cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land.