Agencies/New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence yesterday over the lynching of a Muslim man suspected of eating beef, calling it “unfortunate”, after criticism over his failure to speak out.
Modi accused the opposition of trying to stir up controversy over the incident last month in which Mohamed Akhlaq was dragged from his home and beaten to death over rumours he had eaten beef.
Cows are considered sacred by Hindus, and beef eating has become a highly contentious issue since Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took power, with several states banning the practice.
The attack in the northern town of Dadri on the outskirts of New Delhi came against a background of growing concern over the influence of nationalist groups.
Last week BJP’s ally Shiv Sena forced the cancellation of a concert by well-known Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali in Mumbai.
“The Dadri incident and refusal to allow the Pakistani singer to hold a concert are unfortunate and unwanted incidents,” Modi told the Ananda Bazar Patrika daily in comments published yesterday.
“The BJP has never supported such acts. The opposition is trying to level charges of communalism against the BJP, but in doing so, they are themselves indulging in the politics of polarisation,” he told the Bengali-language daily.
Modi has repeatedly appealed for religious unity in India, but critics say his failure to condemn such attacks is emboldening the Hindu right and encouraging intolerance towards Muslims and other religious minorities.
They are concerned by his failure to slap down prominent BJP members who make potentially inflammatory comments - such as Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, who recently dismissed the Dadri killing as an “accident”.
In his only other comments so far, during an election rally in Bihar last week, Modi urged citizens to follow President Pranab Mukherjee’s message on the need to preserve core civilisational values of diversity, tolerance and plurality.
He did not mention any specific incident.
Modi’s comments on Dadri come as over two dozen eminent writers returned literary awards given by the state saying the space for free expression in the country was shrinking and there was growing intolerance towards difference of opinion and different cultures.
“He (Modi) should have said ‘I condemn’ instead of ‘unfortunate’- that is too weak a word in the circumstances,” writer Shashi Deshpande, who resigned from the board of the Sahitya Akademi said.
“A leader is morally responsible for what happens in your area and a few words can make a lot of difference,” Deshpande said.
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party termed Modi’s remarks on the Dadri lynching as “inhuman” and “a pseudo statement” and accused him of trying to wash his hands of the incident.
“I believe it is not appropriate to wash your hands of by saying the new government has no role to play,” Congress leader Sachin Pilot said.
Party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the prime minister’s statement dismissing the Dadri incident as “sad” was “inhuman” and “extremely unfortunate”.
AAP leader Ashutosh termed the prime minister’s remarks as a pseudo statement.
“Mr PM if your statements don’t follow actions people won’t believe your articulation. It will be considered pseudo statement,” he tweeted.
“It is unbecoming of a PM to keep mum on issues of secularism/brotherhood/freedom of expression/liberty then make half-hearted statement,” it added.
On Tuesday author Salman Rushdie said that Modi’s silence was giving rise to a new culture of “thuggish violence” in India.