India’s Modi appeals for religious unity after beef murder row

In this Aug. 15, 2014 file photo, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation on the country’s Independence Day in New Delhi, India. AP FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI, India—Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for religious unity Thursday after days of growing tensions over a Muslim man’s murder by a mob for supposedly eating beef in Hindu-majority India.

READ: Indian man beaten to death, son injured over beef eating ‘rumors’

The Hindu nationalist premier has been under growing pressure to break his silence over the incident and defuse a row raging over a feared rising intolerance towards Muslims and other religious minorities.

Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was dragged from his home outside the Indian capital last week and beaten to death after rumors spread that he had eaten beef. His 22-year-old son was severely injured in the attack.

At least eight men have been arrested over the September 28 murder.

Without referring specifically to the attack, Modi said the nation will only prosper “when Hindus and Muslims unite and fight” against poverty instead of against each other.

“The country has to stand united. Harmony, brotherhood and peace will lead us to development,” Modi said at an election rally for the upcoming polls in Bihar state in eastern India.

The premier also implored people to ignore political leaders who have jumped on the issue in recent days to win votes along religious lines ahead of the election.

Several of Modi’s own ministers have stopped short of condemning the attack outside New Delhi, fueling concerns among religious minorities of an erosion of rights in the world’s biggest democracy, and emboldening Hindu hardliners.

Cows are considered sacred by most Hindus in officially secular India whose millions of Muslims and other minorities eat beef as a source of protein.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday called for India’s tradition of tolerance to be upheld, in what was seen as an attempt to calm raging anger over the issue.

Punching, shoving

Modi’s comments come just hours after legislators from his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) punched and shoved an opposition Muslim member in a state parliament over eating beef.

READ: Lawmakers in India-held Kashmir punch colleague for serving beef

Television footage showed several BJP legislators attacked Abdul Rashid, in the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly, for holding a provocative “beef party.”

“No amount of condemnation can be enough for what happened today,” opposition leader Omar Abdullah told reporters outside the assembly in the northern region’s main city of Srinagar.

“Trying to beat up a member, this is the first time I have ever seen something like this in any house,” said Abdullah, whose party walked out of the chamber over the attack.

“Do I assault everyone who eats pork or alcohol?”

Rashid served beef kebabs at the “party” this week in protest against a ban on killing and eating cows in India’s only Muslim-majority state. The issue ignited in the region after a top court last month ordered the long-standing but little enforced prohibition be strictly implemented.

Rashid told AFP that about 10 to 14 BJP members “just pounced on me as soon as I entered the house,” saying he had feared for his life. Footage showed legislators rounding on Rashid, trying to hit him as others held them back.

Modi’s party, which came to power in May 2014, wants a nationwide ban on the slaughter of cows, which is prohibited in some but not all states. India is the world’s biggest exporter of buffalo meat, an industry mainly run by Muslims.

Modi’s BJP colleagues have came under fire for appearing to trivialize Akhlaq’s murder.

“If somebody says it was pre-planned, I don’t agree. It was an accident and investigations should happen,” Modi’s culture minister Mahesh Sharma told reporters during a visit to the victim’s family last week.

Commentators have also warned of an emboldening of Hindu hardliners since Modi came to power, with vigilante gangs increasingly campaigning against Muslims.