Be alert, save basic tenets of country, says Prez Mukherjee on lynchings

New Delhi: Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned violence in the name of gau raksha, President Pranab Mukherjee spoke out on the need to quell the vigilantism that has been on the rise in the last few weeks.

Mr Mukherjee said that the country needed to fight forces of darkness. “When mob lynching becomes so high and uncontrollable, we have to pause and reflect, are we vigilant enough? I am not talking of vigilantism, I am talking of (if we) are vigilant enough, proactively, to save the basic tenets of our country.”

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi attacked the Centre, saying, “If we do not speak up, our silence would be taken as consent. Mob violence has become order of the day.”

Priyanka Gandhi also condemned the lynching staying, “I am furious, what I see on TV and on the internet makes my blood boil. Infact this should make every Indian’s blood boil.”