Asaduddin Owaisi targets Mohan Bhagwat for his 'don't use lynching' comment

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement on Tuesday describing lynching as a foreign phenomenon has evoked a strong reaction from opposition leaders. Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor came down heavily on Bhagwat and said 'a crime is a crime' whether you call it with any 'bharat culture-approved term' or not.

New Delhi: There cannot be a bigger insult to the country than the ideology which led to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and the recent lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand, said AIMIM leader and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi targeting Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Tuesday.

"The victims were Indians. Who garlanded convicts? Who draped them in tricolor? We have a Godse loving BJP MP. There cannot be bigger defamation of India than the ideology that killed Gandhi or Tabrez. Bhagwat is not saying stop lynching, he is saying 'do not call it that'," Owaisi's tweet read.

Speaking on the occasion of Vijayadashami at Reshimbagh in Nagpur, Bhagwat had earlier today spoken about hate crimes and lynching, without naming any community.

"We hear people of a community beat people from another community. It is not that only a certain community targets people. There are cases where what has actually happened gets twisted. However, the self-centred forces blame a particular community to stoke fire between communities," said Bhagwat while saying that naming Sangh in these incidents is a conspiracy.

Speaking of lynching, an issue that has been used against BJP and the government led by the party, Bhagwat said lynching is a foreign concept and society should know where this word comes from. He quoted an incident from the life of Jesus to hint where the concept has been derived from.

"Word lynching came from a foreign text where these incidents used to take place. We recommend strong lawful action against such incidents. These people are trying to defame India in the world by citing lynching incidents. We should not give protection to these people for our political gains," stated Bhagwat.

Tabrez was assaulted by a mob on the suspicion of committing a theft in Kharsawan district of Jharkhand in June this year. After four days, he succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.

Earlier in September, the police had restored the murder charge under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against all the 13 accused in Tabrez Ansari lynching case after dropping it initially.