I feel this whole House wholeheartedly needs to condemn every lynching that happened in this country. It does not matter who, which State and what it is. Actually, I was really disappointed with the lead speaker of the ruling party and I stand here as a woman who shares the pain of Saira Ji, who lost her 15-year old son Junaid. In his speech, I was really disappointed that a senior member like Hukmdeo Narayan Ji turned around and said casually “such incidents keep occurring.”

The whole point is that lynching is a very sensitive issue. What Paswan Ji said is absolutely right. We, in one voice, need to send a message to this country, does not matter which caste, creed, city, State or party we come from. We, as one Parliament, condemn it and that is the message this country is looking for in modern India. So, I think that is the resolution that we need to pass together which we will support as a group.

I am so happy Kiren Rijiju is sitting here who has a very modern view on what people should eat, wear and think and he leads the Home Ministry. So, I am looking at him with a lot of hope with the aspiring India that you talk about. You keep saying this is modern din, acche din. Then let us put our hand where our mouth is and deliver the things. Even the Shiv Sena unfortunately is not here. We had a lynching issue in Nagpur. All the Chief Ministers in this country, better late than never, have condemned it, I must say, be it the Jharkhand CM, be it the Rajasthan CM. But Maharashtra is the only State where the CM, who is so active otherwise, has not said one word against what happened in Nagpur, and there was no proof that that was beef.

The point is, if you are a vegetarian, how you would know what that meat looks like. I cook regularly. I cannot tell the difference between the two meats.

What right did they have to hit that man in Nagpur? All that the wife was saying was that she wanted her husband to be alive and she wanted justice. I did not want to bring up any party issue. Both are from the BJP and he was the general secretary of the minority morcha of the BJP. What did the Chief Minister do? Did he say one word? Not one word came out. Did Shiv Sena condemn it? Nobody condemned it. This is what happened in my state.

I must congratulate the Rajasthan Chief Minister. She had the courage to write an article against mob lynching. I compliment her. Better late than never, but she did it. I also compliment the Chief Minister of Jharkhand. He had the decency to sack the SP there. But in our State, he (CM) has not done it.

Maharashtra is a modern State. In our State, we never had such issues in the last 50 years. So, I urge you to take this opportunity and see why eating beef is an issue. If the Goa CM can talk about importing beef from Karnataka, why cannot Maharashtra do the same thing? As a woman, I am asking you for justice today. I would urge you to find out why.

You talk about ahimsa. Your Government talks about Yoga Day. What is Yoga all about? You talk about Yoga Day. We are all happy to do Yoga. We are proud of our Indian culture. What does Yoga tell you first? Yoga’s third posture is astha. First is yam. Yam teaches first about ahimsa. So, why do we not all say that Yoga Day is not about just doing Surya Namaskar but it is about ahimsa, and that is the message this country needs.

What happened to Junaid is very unfortunate, and that person who did this to him is out on bail today. Is this the justice system you want to give? I think we condemn it. We all have to find out a way to ensure that if somebody is caught in mob lynching or in any lynching--does not matter who he is or where he is from--he should not get bail.

I think we, as a House, need to send a message to this country that first we should make new regulations that nobody can get bail after killing somebody’s 15 year old child.

What about that poor radio jockey of Mumbai, Malishka? All she did was, she made a simple song against the potholes of Mumbai. The BJP-Shiv Sena Government has given her a notice. Is this really the freedom we are looking at- what you eat, what you drink, what you wear, what you say? She is just an RJ, young jockey, young woman trying to strive for a career.

Why are people eating beef? There is a Professor Michael Gordon who is Irish. He has spent his entire life in Africa. He is saying that some of this meat consumed by people in the low income category is necessary because it has a high protein content. So, I would urge the Government that if you want a lot of people free from mal-nutrition issues, give a solution. Give dal to the entire country, give all the BPL dharaks free dal from tomorrow. I am sure they will be happy to change their diet. Why not give that? So, if you are not giving them beef to eat, then you give them good dal.

I come from a family of an atheist father and a God-loving mother. That does not mean my father ever told me not to go with my mother nor did my mother tell me to join her. India is very modern and so is the Hindu religion.

Shri Farooq Abdullah is sitting here. He comes to Maharashtra 100 times. He comes to temples with all of us. He has gone to Shri Nishikant Dubey’s temple in his constituency. He has been there. So, we all go with this. So, how does it matter? Why are we dividing India?

Today a lot of people have talked about Lohia Ji. I was a little amused because so many people talked about Lohia Ji. If I remember, I think Deen Dayal Upadhyay Ji in the 1960s lost an election and Lohia Ji did not help him win the election. Lohia Ji had very strong views about Jan Sangh at one time. I quote Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Ji’s political diary, 30th April, 1962.

Glancing through Press cuttings, I came across a news item in the National Herald dated 27th March, 1962, reporting a speech of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia made at Allahabad. In this speech, Dr. Lohia, who stressed on the need of communal harmony, is further reported to have said that he would not like to enter into controversy whether Jan Sangh was a communal body or not. But he was sure that Jan Sangh by its policies and activities was widening the gulf between the Hindus and the Muslims.

That is not what India is all about and I think that is the change we need to bring in. I would just like to end with one quick quote, which I say with heavy heart, from Rousseau from The Social Contract: “Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever, subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.”