Engage in discourse not vandalism:Jaitley
Union minister Arun Jaitley today came out strongly against the "extremely disturbing trend" of people resorting to vandalism to register contrarian views and said there has to be a proper "civilised mode" of discussing and debating issues. "All right-thinking sections will have to distance themselves from these kind of methodologies," he said in the backdrop of a series of incidents including where BJP ally Shiv Sena stormed the BCCI headquarters and blackened the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni in Mumbai. Asked about the tactics employed by Shiv Sena to register protests, he said the same standard of civility applies to all. He also said that the BJP President has "strongly" taken up with the "few leaders" in his party, who had made statements on sensitive issues, adding, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had conveyed his views. Jaitley said that those using these methods must also "introspect" whether they are adding to the quality of Indian democracy or are they really "reducing" the credibility of India as a country before the eyes of the world itself. Noting that it was "an extremely disturbing trend" where some people have been resorting to vandalism as an instrument of registering their protest or conveying their views, the minister said it is quite possible that in a large country like India there may be "divergent views" on many subjects.
