Arun Jaitley speaks out on Intolerance and Vandalism

In the wake of series of protests by Shiv Sainiks against artists, diplomats and cricketers and communal hatred being spread between the communities, Union Finance and I&B Minister Arun Jaitley had spoken out on the issue and called for tolerance and debate instead of vandalism.

He also confirmed that BJP President Amit Shah has already spoken to the loose cannons after PM Modi expressed his displeasure over their insensitive remarks.

“Past few days have seen extremely disturbing trends where some people resorted to vandalism as an instrument to convey their views. Sensitive issues like relationship between communities, J&K, neighbors…Everyone should be careful on statements”.

“Some of these issues extremely serious, some can reflect on inter-community relations, others can reflect on sensitive areas such as J&K. Therefore, there has to be a proper civilized mode of discussing and debating these issues. I have no difficulty if people convey contrarian views as I see essence of democracy in debate”.

“Possible in India there are divergent views, traditionally there is civility in expressing these view. Raise level of debate rather than use vandalism. People indulging in this (Vandalism) should be strongly criticised”.

“People using these methods must introspect whether they are adding to quality of democracy or reducing credibility of India as a country”.

“I don’t think anybody in the BJP has resorted to these methods (vandalism). Two or three people have made such statements, Party President has very strongly taken it up with them, PM conveyed his views, all of them have been spoken to. Spokespersons have conducted themselves in right spirit”.