New Delhi: Reacting to a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by 49 eminent personalities highlighting the rise in hate crimes, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday said that minorities and Dalits are safe in India.
"No one should communalise criminal incidents. Dalits and minorities are safe in this country. Those who are yet to recover from the defeat of 2019 Lok Sabha polls are trying to do it," said Naqvi.
"We have seen the same thing after 2014 (elections) in the name of 'award wapsi', this is just part two of that," he said, referring to the protest by writers against the government's alleged silence on violence and rising intolerance.
The open letter reads: “Dear Prime Minister... The lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately. We were shocked to learn from the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) reports that there have been no less than 840 instances of atrocities against Dalits in the year 2016, and a definite decline in the percentage of convictions.”
The letter, written by 49 eminent personalities, including filmmakers Shyam Benegal and Aparna Sen as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal and historian Ramchandra Guha, noted that Jai Shri Ram has been reduced to "provocative war cry".
"You have criticised such lynchings in Parliament Mr. Prime Minister, but that is not enough! What action has actually been taken against the perpetrators?"
"Ram is sacred for the majority community, stop defiling the name of Ram," the letter read. It also underscored the significance of dissent in a democracy.
"There is no democracy without dissent. People should not be branded anti-national or urban Naxal and incarcerated because of dissent against the government."
The letter comes on a day when the Ministry of Home Affairs told Parliament that incidents of communal violence showed a “declining trend”.
(With PTI inputs)
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