What's Centre's role? PM Modi finally breaks silence on Dadri, Ghulam Ali and more

The Prime Minister’s only reference to the incident in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, where a Muslim man was attacked on suspicion of eating beef has been a speech in Bihar where he asked people to heed the President’s word on maintaining unity in the country. However, he has now spoken to the ABP group about the incident and other controversies, saying that the central government had no role to play in them. According to a report on ABP News, the Prime Minister said that the incident in Dadri and the cancellation of Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai due to protests by the Shiv Sena were saddening, but he questioned why the Centre was being dragged into the controversy. [caption id=“attachment_2467830” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI image[/caption] “This debate has taken place earlier as well. The BJP has always opposed fake secularism. Today thanks to these tragedies they are sparking a debate again. It is possible to resolve this through dialogue. “The BJP never supports such incidents. On the basis of such events, the Opposition is accusing the BJP of speading communalism, but aren’t they indulging in politics of polarisation themselves?” he said. The Prime Minister said the allegation that he was maintaining a silence on controversies in order to boost the party’s chances in Bihar were untrue. “To what extent is the role of the central government in these incidents? The Dadri murder, MM Kalburgi’s murder, opposition to Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali, the opposition to the book launch of Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, the throwing of ink on Sudheendra Kulkarni, why is Modi silent on these issues? This question is constantly being raised. “The opposition says that ‘Modi gives his view on every big and small incident but his silence is a strategy. The BJP wants to increase the communal rift in Bihar’,” he said, adding that it wasn’t true. The opposition has been claiming that the Prime Minister’s response so far to the issue was inadequate and was part of a plan. Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the silence was part of a strategy of the BJP to polarise the country. “The BJP and the Prime Minister have a strategy of polarising this country. They have a strategy of making Hindus and Muslims fight against each other,” he alleged on Friday . The government has in the past has acknowledged that incidents such as the one in Dadri could hurt the image of the country. While some, like Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, had publicly said such incidents could hurt the nation, others like Venkaiah Naidu and Najma Heptullah had blamed the state government for the incident. But the Prime Minister’s silence on the matter had been used by the Opposition to keep up its attack on the BJP. The Prime Minister finally breaking his silence is welcome but may not quell the voices of the opposition on the matter. As Firstpost’s R Jagannathan had pointed out earlier, it won’t be easy for the Modi government to shrug off the perceptions surrounding it, and needs to do more than expected to ensure that it does. Whether this statement will be adequate to do that, is questionable.