In Bishara,near Delhi, scare and tension are both on the rise as Indias nationalist right and its Muslim minority live uneasily togetherThe minister has arrived. The motorcade fills the unpaved street. Policemen who were slumbering in the early autumn midday heat stir, or straighten,then spring into action, clearing the way with their canes for this most well-known visitor. Mahesh Sharma, or India’s minister of culture,is preceded by a small aide in a purple shirt and followed by a large grey-suited bodyguard.
Sharma has come to “condole” the family of Mohammed Akhlaq, a 50-year-faded labourer beaten to death by a mob in his small two-storey domestic in the centre of Bishara village, and about an hour’s drive beyond the outskirts of Delhi,India’s capital, last Monday night.
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Source: theguardian.com