Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday said that the name of Hindu deity Ram should not be used to create unrest and anger in the country, PTI reported. Over the past few months, several people have faced violence or been lynched by mobs because they allegedly refused to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.
“If someone does so by heart then it is good, but if someone is made to chant Jai Shri Ram slogans unwillingly, it’s wrong,” ANI quoted Gehlot as saying in the Assembly. “What would be the condition of our country if such an environment is created by taking the god’s name and raising slogans?”
The chief minister then chanted “Jai Shri Ram” and Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs reciprocated. “You have owned Jai Shri Ram,” the Congress leader said, referring to the BJP. “I chanted it, but be it members of the ruling party or Opposition, everyone was happy when I chanted Lord Ram’s name,” Gehlot said, according to PTI. “It is unfortunate that you start owning him just as you did with Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Ambedkar ji. It is wrong.”
He said it was unfortunate that people have uttered the name and chanted the slogan in such a manner that it created unrest and anger among the public. Gehlot added that it would be equally wrong if someone uttered Allah’s name and others objected to it or forced it on people.
On July 16, Gehlot had announced in the Assembly that his government will enact laws to curb incidents of mob lynching and other hate crimes in the state. He had expressed concern over the rising incidents of mob lynching.
A group of filmmakers, activists and academics had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week to stop mob lynchings in the country. They had said that the slogan “Jai Shri Ram” had become a “provocative war cry” and the reason for a number of lynchings in the country.
On Monday, unidentified individuals allegedly set a 15-year-old Muslim boy on fire in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh on Friday for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram”. On July 21, two Muslim men in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city were allegedly threatened and forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” by unidentified people. The month before, a Muslim man identified as Tabrez Ansari died after was beaten up in Jharkhand’s Seraikela Kharsawan district on June 18 for allegedly attempting to steal a motorcycle. The FIR said the mob had also forced Ansari to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”.
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