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Bharatiya Janata Party MP Satyapal Singh drew ire from the opposition by calling the Dadri lynching "a small incident".

"As far as a small incident like Dadri is concerned, our country's democratic atmosphere is fully competent to handle," Singh told CNN-IBN. Our country is fully competent to handle such incidents."

Singh, who happens to be the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, was not the first BJP MP to trivialise the murder. His party contemporaries have previously called it “an accident”, threatened to “give a befitting reply” and claimed that they were ready to kill in order to protect cows. The Center had belatedly pulled them up for their insensitive comments.

Criticising Singh's comments, Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said it is a reflection of what the BJP was trying to do.

"I am absolutely dismayed at the remarks of the BJP MP, who was also a former Police Commissioner of Mumbai," said Kumar, who added that such remarks reflect a "strategy" of the BJP to usurp power by polarising communities.

Samajwadi Party leader Rajiv Rai demanded an apology from the BJP. "I am disgusted that this statement comes from an MP, who was a former police commissioner," he said.

Meanwhile, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's studied silence on the matter, terming the incident "sad and condemnable".

The story so far:

  • In Dadri's Bishara village on September 28, a 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was murdered and his son Danish (22) was brutally beaten up as punishment for allegedly eating beef on Eid and 'storing it' for later consumption.
  • Vishal, son of local BJP leader Sanjay Rana, was among the 10 people arrested in connection with the case. Seven of the arrested men belong to the family of Rana.
  • Union Minister Mahesh Sharma, who is the local MP, described the lynching as an “accident” and said that no “communal colour” should be given to it.
  • President Pranab Mukherjee warned of the dire need to maintain the plurality and the secular framework of the country.