On Sept. 28, a 50-year-old Muslim man, Mohammad Akhlaq, was lynched in Dadri, just outside Delhi, by a mob wielding sticks, swords and makeshift pistols. The nine-member family had been preparing to go to bed when the mob broke in around 10.30 p.m. They accused the family of having slaughtered a cow in the Hindu village and insisted the meat in the fridge was beef (it wasn't, not that that should matter), brushing aside the family's protestations of innocence. Efforts by their immediate neighbors to intercede proved futile. The mob was whipped into a killing frenzy by an announcement in a local temple that someone had slaughtered a cow and eaten beef.
Meanwhile at Facebook headquarters in California on Sept. 27 — that is, the same day Indian time — Prime Minister Narendra Modi teared up emotionally and his voice broke as he recalled the sacrifices his mother had made to raise him. His paean to all mothers rings hollow when one reflects on Ashgari Akhlaq's emotions at her son being killed.
It took Modi 10 days to refer to the lynching publicly, only to deliver a homily about how Hindus and Muslims should join forces to fight poverty and not each other. No condemnation, no abhorrence of what had been done in the name of his religion, no words of solace and condolence to the grieving family.