PM Modi breaks silence over Dadri incident, asks Hindus-Muslims to stay united

Nawada (Bihar), Oct 8: Breaking his silence over horrific Dadri lynching incident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Hindus-Muslims should work together to fight poverty and not against each other.

"The country has to stay united, only communal harmony and brotherhood will take the nation forward. People should ignore controversial statements made by politicians as they are doing so for political gains," PM Modi said while addressing a poll rally in Bihar's Nawada.

Speaking over mob lynching incident, in which a 50-year-old man was bludgeoned to death over rumours of eating beef, PM Modi said, "President Pranab Mukherjee's message is the best guidance we can get as a nation. We should follow the path shown by President."

"In a democracy, everyone has the right to speak their mind," the prime minister said on Dadri mob killing.

"We can't allow the core values of our civilisation to be wasted. The core values are that over the years, civilisation celebrated diversity, promoted and advocated tolerance, enjoyed plurality. These core civilisational values keep us together over the centuries," President Mukherjee said during a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Opposition parties were consistently criticising PM Modi for keeping mum over killing of Mohammed Iqlakh in Dadri's Bishara village, about 60 kms away from the national capital. Death of Iqlakh has triggered a nation-wide outrage as the incident tarnished the country's secular fabric.

Iqlakh's younger son Danish, 22, who was critically wounded in the attack and is undergoing treatment at a Noida hospital, has come out of the ICU and is able to communicate with the family.

Earlier in the day, Modi vigorously stirred Bihar's electoral pot, launching a scalding attack on RJD chief Lalu Prasad for his "Hindus also eat beef" comments calling it an "insult" to "Yaduvanshis" and provoking accusations of attempting to communalise the polls.

Modi repeatedly targeted Lalu over his remark, terming it as an insult to the "yaduvanshis" (yadava clan) as also Bihar.

OneIndia News