Maran Follows Moitra in Lok Sabha on Jharkhand Lynching: 'Enough is Enough'

NEW DELHI: “Enough is enough” said Dayanidhi Maran, explaining the reasons for moving for an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha today on the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkand.

A three term MP, having been elected from the Chennai Central constituency in this Lok Sabha, Maran has created a stir in and outside the House. He has taken the Trinamool Congress intervention through its first MP Mahua Moitra a decisive step further, with the adjournment motion that was not accepted today, but which he plans to convert into a zero hour statement on Monday.

Asked why the DMK which is usually preoccupied with issues concerning Tamil Nadu had decided to move the adjournment motion on the Jharkhand lynching, Maran who was a Minister in the UPA government earlier told The Citizen categorically, “We saw the video (of the lynching). How can anyone, in the name of religion take the law into their own hands? We come from the DMK and we believe in communal harmony, we believe in secularism. We come from a peaceful state.”

Maran said that there was no question of his party sitting back and letting this be. He was silent when asked why the north Indian opposition parties had said nothing on this lynching. And why his former allies in the UPA had had little to say in Parliament on the issue.

“Who gave the right to anyone to take lives. Are Muslims not Indians? We all grew up as brothers and sisters. Enough is enough. Why should minorities be targeted. For what fault? Because they belong to a different religion?” Maran asked.

He said that all communities had been living peacefully, and such incidents of lynchings were not known in India before 2014. “We never saw this before,” he said. “There is disquiet now. The Prime Minister said earlier that he was pained, but then the time is not for words, we need action.”

Maran said that the minorities were living in fear. And that this is not the India his party was committed to. “We have all been living peacefully, who gave these people the right to take lives. Are Muslims not citizens of India?” he said.

The DMK follows the TMC on the mob attack on Tabrez Ansari, who succumbed to his injuries shortly after. He was made to chant Jai Sri Ram (Victory to Lord Ram) and beaten mercilessly by the mob for hours with the video generating a national outcry.

Ansari’s wife has been offered a job by the Delhi Wakf Board, under the Aam Aadmi Party government and given a cheque of Rs 5 lakhs to help the family see its way through.