Modi Demands Tolerance From B.J.P. Leaders on Beef Issue

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/world/asia/india-narendra-modi-beef-bjp.html

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NEW DELHI — Facing mounting criticism that he has failed to confront religious intolerance in his Hindu nationalist party, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, sent his chief political enforcer on Sunday to order party leaders to refrain from making statements that could be seen as condoning bigotry or violence against people who eat beef.

In the past month three people have died after being attacked by Hindus enraged at reports of cows being slaughtered, smuggled or consumed. The latest fatality came Sunday, when a 16-year-old boy died from injuries he suffered on Oct. 9 when a Hindu mob attacked a truck with a gas bomb in the Kashmir Valley in northern India. The mob formed when a local lawmaker served kebabs and hamburgers at a “beef party” to protest a proposed ban on the meat in Jammu and Kashmir.

As word spread of the teenager’s death, Mr. Modi’s political enforcer, Amit Shah, president of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., was in the process of reprimanding several members of the so-called beef brigade — high-profile party officials who have recently made increasingly provocative statements widely interpreted as excusing or justifying assaults on those who slaughter or consume cows, which many Hindus consider sacred.

Indeed, the latest issue of Panchjanya, a magazine published by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the B.J.P.’s ideological parent, includes an article that cites Hindu scripture to justify killing “sinners” who slaughter cows.

Such comments, along with Mr. Modi’s failure to condemn them promptly, have contributed to a growing political backlash. Dozens of India’s leading writers, for example, are returning the nation’s highest literary award to protest what they view as rising intolerance under Mr. Modi’s government.

The writers’ revolt exploded after Sept. 28, when several hundred Hindu men ransacked a home in a village east of Delhi because a rumor had spread that the family there was eating beef. Mohammed Ikhlaq, one of the few Muslims who lives in the village, Bisada, was beaten to death, and his son was seriously wounded.

In the days after Mr. Ikhlaq’s killing, many local B.J.P. leaders condemned the police decision to charge 10 men with murder. Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said Mr. Ikhlaq’s killing should be considered an “accident.” According to the Indian network NDTV, Mr. Sharma was among those whom Mr. Shah reprimanded Sunday.

Mr. Shah also summoned Sakshi Maharaj, a B.J.P. member of Parliament, who on Saturday advocated the death penalty for anyone caught slaughtering a cow. “Leaders need to change their mind-set or get beaten up by the people in full public view,” Mr. Maharaj said at a public event, according to news media accounts.

Mr. Shah also reprimanded Manohar Lal Khattar, the chief minister of Haryana State in the north, who said in a recent interview with The Indian Express, “Muslims can live here, but in this country, they will have to stop eating beef.

“The cow,” he continued, “is a matter of faith in this country. Muslims can live without beef, can’t they?”

According to The Indian Express, Mr. Modi has conveyed “extreme displeasure” about statements of this sort, and Mr. Shah reportedly argued that the comments were a damaging distraction just as the party was trying to win elections in the northeastern state of Bihar by convincing voters that it would bolster economic development.

One of Mr. Modi’s most influential political allies, Naresh Gujral, the son of former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, told the Press Trust of India that “motor mouths” in the party were damaging Mr. Modi “more than anyone else.” Mr. Gujral said it was “high time” to send the message “that this kind of nonsense will not be tolerated.”