BJP questions silence of 'award-wapsi' intellectuals

A day after a court ordered the registration of a case against Mohammed Akhlaq’s family for alleged cow slaughter, BJP on Friday questioned the “silence” of intellectuals who had returned their awards after the lynching incident and demanded an apology from them for “defaming” the country.

The party said it was maligned across the world, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was projected as a “villain” even though Akhlaq’s murder was a failure of the Uttar Pradesh government.

"The court has ordered registration of a FIR. The law will take its course. We have condemned Akhlaq’s murder and are against any violence. But the incident was used by some so-called intellectuals to defame BJP and the country in the world. Modi was projected as a villain. Where are those people now who had returned awards? Why are they silent? If they have any morality, they should apologise to the country for bringing it a bad name,” BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Akhlaq was killed by a mob on September 29 last year on the suspicion that his family had stored and consumed beef at their home.

A court has now ruled that a FIR is registered by police and his family be probed for allegedly slaughtering a cow, a crime in Uttar Pradesh.

The family had earlier denied the charge.