KOCHI: There is no justification for any sort of violence, irrespective of which party or group is behind such crimes, Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said here on Friday. Rathore — the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, and Information & Broadcasting — was responding to queries on the reported instances of mob lynching from some parts of the country.
“Violence, in itself, is a negation of freedom,” he said during an interaction with select journalists. “In every single such incident, somebody will get hurt, somebody loses life.” There have been allegations that, at least in some cases, workers belonging to the BJP were behind the violence and mob lynching.
On allegations that the Central Government was not doing enough to end such incidents, he said: “India is such a huge country. We have a federal structure. The district administration must work, the intelligence net-work must work.”
Rathore said one of the big-gest achievements of the Modi-led government is the delivery of services to a large number of people directly. For instance, in his Lok Sabha constituency (Jaipur Rural), about 1.5 lakh gas connections have been provided.
“This means 14 lakh voters,” he said, adding that Prime Minister’s recent rally in Rajasthan saw a huge turn-out of at least 2-2.5 lakh people, comprised only of “beneficiaries of various government schemes”.
Similarly, the government scheme to have a school up to Class XII in every panchayat has been a big success in Rajasthan. Rathore said, instead of banning social media, people have to be educated on how to handle something that is very powerful. To ensure this is not misused, local administration should have its ears to the ground.