During the course of the discussion, several panelists brought up the unease which had been created in the country under the current regime, especially for minorities, and the way in which breaches of the law like lynchings were taking place because the mobs felt they had immunity to do so.

“I think we are being a little oversimplistic in saying the fringe is responsible for these incidents. That is a way of avoiding the issue. I agree, that a large part of it is the fringe” said Singhvi.

“But when you have high officials, you have even ministers, MPs, you have officials at different levels of the party, people in constitutional positions, and then you have complete, eloquent silence and indeed at various levels and in various ways, a wink and a nod, that is the problem.”