Engage in debate not vandalism, says FM Arun Jaitley

A day after President Pranab Mukherjee cautioned against increasing cases of intolerance, Union Minister Arun Jaitley, too, on Tuesday strongly criticised the “extremely disturbing trend” of people resorting to vandalism to register contrarian views and said there has to be a proper “civilised mode” of discussing and debating issues.”

The President’s statement, second in a fortnight, left the government red-faced which had initially pooh-poohed the protest by writers. “All right-thinking sections will have to distance themselves from these kinds of methodologies,” Jaitley said on Tuesday in the backdrop of a series of incidents including where BJP ally Shiv Sena stormed the BCCI headquarters and blackened the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni in Mumbai.

However, the Opposition dismissed the statement as mere lip service. “Those who have a divergent viewpoint from the ruling establishment or the BJP, the RSS and Sangh Parivar are targets of direct attacks. Even eminent Indians who have protested have not been heard but they have been humiliated,” said party leader Anand Sharma. Reacting to Jaitley’s criticism of vandalism, Sharma called for “tangible action against elements, organisations and forces which have smashed India’s name in the international community”.

On the other hand talking to reporters when asked about the tactics employed by Shiv Sena to register protests, Jaitley said the same standard of civility applies to all. He also said that the BJP President has “strongly” taken up with the “few leaders” in his party, who had made statements on sensitive issues, adding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has conveyed his views.

To this the Congress said that said the PM broke his silence only after President Pranab Mukherjee did. “He spoke only after the President was forced to express his serious concerns over culture, values, ethos, particularly in regard to India’s pluralistic society, democracy, coexistence, and tolerance,” Sharma added.

Indirectly criticising his party’s ally Shiv Sena, Jaitley said that those using these methods must also “introspect” whether they were adding to the quality of Indian democracy or were they “reducing” the credibility of India as a country before the eyes of the world. Noting that political vandalism was “an extremely disturbing trend”, the Minister said in a large country like India there may be “divergent views” on many subjects but there were civil ways also available to differ.