Violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated says, PM Modi

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Two days after the deadly rampage in Panchkula and Sirsa by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated, and the guilty will be punished without fail. The death toll in the clashes triggered by Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s conviction of rape rose to 38 on Sunday evening.

“No one has the right to take the law into one’s own hands in the name of one’s beliefs,” the Prime Minister said in the 35th edition of his monthly radio address, Mann ki Baat, on Sunday. “In the Constitution given to us by Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar there is every provision for ensuring justice for each and every person.

 The Prime Minister referred to the current season of festivals — Ganesh Chaturthi, Eid-ul-Zuha, Onam and the Jain Samvatsari Parva — and said it was only natural to be concerned “when, on the one hand, a sense of festivity pervades the land, and on the other, news of violence comes in from one part of the country”.

I want to assure my countrymen that people who take the law into their own hands and are on the path of violent suppression — whether it is a person or a group — neither this country nor any government will tolerate it. Each and every person will have to abide by the law; the law will fix accountability and the guilty will unquestionably be punished,” Modi said, according to the official translation of his address on the Mann ki Baat web site.