Thank you, Jayant Sinha. You have finally cleared the air and have helped confirm to the world at large that lynching human beings is part of BJP’s electoral strategy. You tried to defend the indefensible by first arguing that there was nothing unusual in garlanding murder convicts whose sentence had been suspended and who were out on bail. You then argued that all the murder convicts were after all your constituents. Finally, you explained that you did not agree with the verdict given by the fast-track court in convicting eleven people for killing Alimuddin Ansari on suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car.

Since when have union ministers started publicly voicing their displeasure with court verdicts? Since when have you started garlanding convicts and claim that you were honouring the due process of law? And since you clearly are concerned about your constituents, why didn’t you, Jayant Sinha, even bother to meet the family of the deceased, leave alone help them? Were they not your constituents ?

Your silence in answering the disturbing questions speaks volumes. It may have shocked people who are civilised, liberal and consider lynching human beings as barbaric and vigilante justice medieval or even primitive. But then we have known for a long time that regressive ideas appeal to the BJP and its parent body, the RSS. In their cynical pursuit of power, they did not think twice before demolishing a place of worship (Babri Masjid) or engineering communal violence and genocide in Gujarat (2002). It did not matter because the strategies paid off in terms of political dividend.

Public memory is short but not so short that we will forget what your leader, Narendra Modi, told an interviewer in the run up to the general election of 2014. He declared that the genocide in Gujarat did shock him just as the death of a puppy run over by a car cannot help but shock people. Your public defence of your shocking conduct, Jayant Sinha, reminds us of your leader, who no doubt would have approved your action. Who knows, he may even have applauded you?