India's Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has conceded there is “some amount” of intolerance in the society, which needs to be identified and dealt with firmly, instead of being generalised. Without pointing towards any incident in particular, Naidu said the people making out of turn statements should be condemned, isolated and disowned. He claimed that incidents have not happened overnight after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister.
Referring to the killing of Dalits and writers in certain states, he said, “There is some amount of intolerance in the society, in different areas. That has to be identified, it has to be localised, it has to be dealt with firmly. Instead of that, we are making it generalised.” Naidu said incidents have not happened overnight after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. “These things have been happening. Some people making out of turn statement, we have to condemn, we have to isolate them... they have to be condemned and disowned.”
Welcoming senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's statement that banning of Salman Rushdie's controversial novel 'The Satanic Verses' was “wrong”, he said, “Sir, there are two things, one people writing the books, they should not affect the sentiments of the people, they should not arouse social tension, but at the same time, freedom of expression and freedom of speech, people have got right. But there has to be broad consensus about how do we go about it.” While banning Salman Rushdie's book draws cheers, the same on a book on Shivaji draws protests, he said, adding that “there are different angles are coming, Hindu angle, Muslim angle.”
“Let there be policy for banning books, or films,” he said. “Let us all be tolerant to each other and then tolerant to verdict of the people...Respecting the mandate of the people was the biggest form of tolerance.”
