Tempers ran high in the lok Sabha over the “rising number” of communal incidents, as the Congress and TMC members on Tuesday accused the BJP of creating an atmosphere of “religious intolerance” despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent assurance to the minorities. As the Opposition raised the issues of vandalism of a church in Haryana, rape of a nun in West Bengal and a controversial comment by the BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in Assam, TMC members engaged in a slanging match with the treasury benches forcing Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to intervene to calm down the frayed tempers.
“We should condemn incidents be it in West Bengal, Haryana or elsewhere,” he said adding “while the Centre has some responsibility” in dealing with such issues, States also have their role cut out. Naidu accused the Congress of playing “communal politics” and urged members to let the State Governments deal with law and order issues and not trade charges in Parliament.
“We do not practice communal politics” and this Government’s slogan was “development for all, appeasement for none,” Naidu said. Referring to Swamy’s reported comment that mosques are not a religious place and could be demolished, Naidu said “we fully disagree with such statements” and wondered whether all such “individual issues” should be raised in the House.
Demanding a detailed statement on the issue, the Congress MPs trooped into the Well demanding a detailed statement from the Government and questioning why such incidents continued to recur despite Modi’s assurance to minorities. The Congress later walked out in protest. During the course of discussion, the Congress and TMC, who were together in attacking the BJP, also traded charges against each other over the response of Mamata Banerjee Government on the nun gangrape incident with Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress) alleging that the main accused have not yet been arrested despite being caught on camera.
CPI(M) MP Mohammad Salim also protested that there was no arrest in the rape case and sought the Centre to ask the State dispensation on the issue. As TMC members protested, SS Ahluwalia (BJP) attacked the ruling party in West Bengal, prompting TMC leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Saugata Roy (TMC) to retort that such incidents were happening due to communal tensions created by the BJP.
Gaurav Gogoi (Congress), who first spoke on the issue condemned the controversial comments of Swamy in Assam, charged the BJP with deliberately creating communal tension in the country. He said the people were scared due to a rise in such incidents. P Venugopal (AIADMK) also attacked Swamy for his statements and said the Government should take strong action against him. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge referred to Prime Minister’s recent speech at a Christian congregation and asked, “Why are these things happening despite the Prime Minister’s assurance in Vigyan BhawanIJ”
Naidu retorted saying it was the Congress which was practicing “communal politics” and asserted that India was peaceful under Modi. On the issue of rape in West Bengal, the Minister said the State Chief Minister has promised stern action and the Haryana Government has also taken action in relation to the reported vandalism of the church.