Amidst reports of mob lynching and atrocities against the minorities and Dalits, the Government on Wednesday said in the Rajya Sabha there was no common pattern of mob lynching with incidents occurring in different states ruled by different political dispensations. There was no rise in communal violence and the government had a “zero tolerance” policy towards it, the House was informed.
Asserting this, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said while 823 incidents of communal violence were reported in 2013, the figure stood at 708 in 2018. The assurance of zero tolerance policy came after some MPs from the Opposition including KK Ragesh and leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad claimed there was a deliberate attempt to divide the society on communal lines and rising atrocities against minorities and Dalits.
Reddy also ruled out any proposal to bring in legislation to prevent communal tension as the present laws were sufficient to deal with any situation. Moreover, the centre from time to time sends advisories to the states to maintain peace, the minister said. “The incidents of communal violence show a declining trend,” he said adding imposition of curfew used to be common earlier but now this is not the case.
Differing with the minister, Azad said during the last five years, incidents of lynching and violence
against minorities and Dalits have become too common. He also said while incidents of communal violence were earlier confined to one area but now communal atmosphere prevailed all across the country.
He said while incidents of terrorising the minorities and Dalits were not shown on television but whatsapp messages circulating show that minorities were forced to chant slogans by members associated to a political party and asked how many advisories were sent by the Centre to state governments in this regard.
On mob lynching, Reddy said there was no common pattern and said the NDA government was serious about tackling the issue and even the Prime Minister had expressed concern. “Available data shows that there is no common pattern of mob lynching and incidents have happened in different states at different times. Incidents have happened in different states ruled by different political parties,” he said. Such incidents have been reported from Tripura, West Bengal and Kerala and had occurred previously also, the minister added.
Reddy said “public order” and “police” are state subjects as per provisions of the Constitution and the responsibility of maintaining law and order including dealing with communal violence and maintaining data rests with respective state governments.