NEW DELHI:In a scathing op-ed by it Editorial Board, the leading American newspaper The New York Times on Monday criticized Indian Prime Minister Narandera Modi for his silence on the murder of a 8-year-old Muslim girl in Kashmir by supporter of his political party.
While the Editorial Board, which represents the opinion of its board, its editor and the publisher, acknowledged that Mr. Modi could not be expected to discuss every crime committed by his supporters, it said such crimes were “not isolated or random” examples of violence.
“They are part of an organized and systematic campaign by nationalist forces that want to terrorize women, Muslims, Dalits and other underprivileged citizens,” the Board said in its hard-hitting editorial against the Indian Prime Minister.
The Board took a swipe at the Indian leader by saying that he “tweets frequently and considers himself a talented orator. Yet he loses his voice when it comes to speaking out about the dangers faced by women and minorities who are frequent targets of the nationalist and communal forces that are part of the base of his Bharatiya Janata Party”.
Eight Hindu men have been accused of killing Asifa Bano who, police said was killed in a Hindu temple on Jan. 17 in a Hindu temple days after she was disappeared.
There have been protests against the government’s response to the rape of the innocent Muslim girl. The NYT noted that until last week, Prime Minister Modi declined to address the attack on the girl by people who, it added, wanted to scare her nomadic Muslim community.
And as Mr. Modi chose to kept silence in spite of a public rage, state lawmakers from his BJP party, which is part of the ruling coalition in Jammu and Kashmir, participated in a rally in support of a man who has been arrested in the crime.
The Editorial said that the Indian Prime Minister has also been reluctant to talk about another rape accusation against a state lawmaker from his part in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
“Mr. Modi’s silence is as perplexing as it is distressing,” the NYT Editorial Board observed. “The prime minister has a duty to safeguard and fight for all of the people of India, not just those who are allied with him politically,” it concluded. (APP)