New Delhi: The issue of communal violence reverberated on Wednesday both inside and outside parliament, as Congress president Sonia Gandhi tried to put the BJP and the Modi government in the dock for playing “divisive politics.”
The BJP hit back saying the charges were “baseless” and an outcome of the party’s “desperation”.
Addressing the general body meeting of the CPP, Mrs Gandhi said that since the BJP has come to power, there have been an alarming increase in number of incidents of communal violence.
“We have had hundreds of incidents of communal violence and rioting in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra and a number of other states. In addition, there have been other subtle but pernicious signals of intolerance,” she said.
Countering the accusations Union minister Prakash Javadekar said outside Parliament: “The Congress is levelling completely baseless charges and we completely reject this. They (charges) are politically motivated. In fact, the Congress is the most communal party.”
In the Lok Sabha, ruling BJP and opposition Congress clashed over the issue.
Initiating the discussion on ‘Need for more effective mechanisms to deal with communal violence’, Leader of the Congress party in the House Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that over 600 riots had taken place in various parts of the country in two months after Modi government came to power. Amid strong protests by ruling benches, he said that the BJP and its affiliates were trying to “divide the society” to retain power.
Hitting back, BJP’s Yogi Adityanath said, “You claim you are secular but the agenda you implement is communal.” He said there have been thousands of riots during UPA rule.
The BJP leader also referred to communal violence in Assam and anti-Sikh riots of 1984. He suggested setting up a SIT to probe all communal incidents during Congress rule.
