Punjab BSP chief Jasbir Singh Garhi, who removed the screenshots, had a hard time explaining the complexity of the issue to the central party leadership.
1. The film is none that BSP. All the saints, gurus and great men etc. of Nav Vigyan have also come complete… https://t.co/Eo7feB5Yi4
— Mayawati (@mayawati) 163448031000
Even as scheduled castes and leftists from outside Punjab gave caste angle to the killing and hashtags hurried for justice, their groups within Punjab are silent, as there is a sacrilege angle. Furthermore, they understand that Lakhbir’s caste was not the reason for his murder.
Mayawati tweeted in Hindi that the Punjab Chief Minister being a “Dalit” should give at least Rs 50 lakh to the victim’s family and a government job. Punjab BSP shared this along with its Punjabi translation. Garhi put it up on his Facebook page on Saturday, before trolls pointed out that there was no caste angle to Lakhbir’s murder and that seeking compensation for him would favor the accused of sacrilege.
The SAD also felt this would be counter-productive, as the 2015 Bargari sacrilege issue has already hit its popularity among its Sikh base. On Saturday evening, Garhi deleted the Facebook post and did not receive calls. A BSP member said: “Our state unit understands that murder is condemnable but its angle was not caste but profanity. It is difficult to convince our central leaders, but we have to.”
Bittu condemns killing at Singhu border
Amid complete silence by Punjab Congress leaders over the lynching of a man on the charge of sacrilege at the Singhu border, Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu condemned the incident and termed it as inhuman and said that if the victim had been involved in any act of sacrilege, she should have been given the death sentence by law rather than committing murder as such.
attack on bjp
Since it has emerged that the victims of the Singhu Seema murder and the Nihangs arrested for this crime had a religious background, the caste theory was rejected and the Punjab unit of the BSP stopped playing this angle. Despite being silent on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, the BJP itself is insisting on making it an issue of farmers’ protest. BJP posted on its Facebook page, “The visionary Sanjay who became in Lakhimpur became Dhritarashtra after the Singhu border killing.” The issue is so complicated for others that the Congress and AAP have condemned the murder, but they have not alleged any caste angle. He only said that this one seemed “deep-rooted”.
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