Nusrat Jahan also condemned mobs targeting Muslims, among other minorities.
Trinamool Congress lawmaker Nusrat Jehan has thanked 49 eminent personalities who wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to protest growing intolerance in the country, and joined them in condemning cow vigilantes who attack people on the basis of rumours of eating beef and cow smuggling. She also criticised the government's "selective silence and inaction".
"Lynch mobs have actually turned Lord Ram's name into a murder cry. Mob lynching criminals are... enemies of our country," Ms Jehan had tweeted hours after filmmakers Aparna Sen, Shyam Benegal, Gautam Ghosh, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, historian Ramchandra Guha and many other doctors, artists and writers made headlines with the strongly worded letter.
The debutante Trinamool Congress lawmaker has made a mark with her vigorous attack on trolls and critics who slammed her for donning sindoor or vermillion and the mangalsutra -- symbols of marriage sported by Hindu women -- while Nusrat is Muslim.
Keeping up her aggressive fight, as it were, for an inclusive India, Ms Jehan wrote, "Injustice in our country has various names - Tamrez Ansari, Mohammed Ikhlaq, Pehlu Khan ....The Honble Supreme Court last year called on government to come up with a law to tackle these 'horrendous acts of mobocracy'. Par Sarkar Chup Hai."
She cited some figures to demonstrate how "hate crimes and mob lynchings are on a steep rise" in the country. "The 2014-2019 period had the most hate crimes against Muslims, Dalits and minorities to its credit. 2019, by now, has witnessed more than 11 hate crimes and 4 deaths, and they all pertain to minorities and the suppressed," Ms Jahan said.
"As a young MP representing new age secular India, I request this government and all lawmakers to frame a law to stop such assaults on democracy by mob-lynchers," she wrote.
Actor Kaushik Sen, one of the 49 signatories of the letter sent yesterday, claims to have received an anonymous call threatening him and his family for criticising the Prime Minister.