BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi in the Lok Sabha on the intolerance debate: "Why does Award Wapsi brigade not see 84 riots, Nellie massacre, riots in Hashimpura, Muzaffarnagar?"


A debate in Parliament today on 'rising intolerance' was waylaid by a controversial comment attributed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh by Left parliamentarian Mohd Salim. For the first time since the Winter Session began last Thursday, uproar forced repeated adjournments in the Lok Sabha. Rajnath Singh strongly denied ever saying that India had the "first Hindu ruler after 800 years" after Narendra Modi came to power at the head of a BJP government last year.  Salim, initiating the debate on "intolerance" in the Lok Sabha, had said: "How did fringe elements get the courage? I want to question the home minister. When Modi came to power, Rajnath Singh said "800 saal baad koi hindu phir se is desh ka shaasak bana hai (After 800 years, this country has a Hindu ruler once again.) Is this democracy? Is this secularism? Is it a part of the Constitution?"