The leaders of 13 Opposition parties on Saturday expressed deep concern over the recent incidents of communal violence and hate speech in the country and urged people to maintain peace and harmony. The leaders questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s failure to speak out against those who “propagate” hate.
In a joint statement, the leaders, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M.K. Stalin, Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, raised concern over “the manner in which issues relating to food, dress, faith, festivals and language are being deliberately used by the ruling establishment to polarise society”.
Claiming that there was a sinister pattern to the communal violence, the Opposition leaders demanded stringent punishment for the perpetrators of violence. They also expressed pain at the manner in which social media and the audio-visual platforms were “being misused with official patronage to spread hatred and prejudice”.
“We are shocked at the silence of the Prime Minister, who has failed to speak against the words and actions of those who propagate bigotry and those who, by their words and actions, incite and provoke our society. This silence is an eloquent testimony to the fact that such private armed mobs enjoy the luxury of official patronage,” the leaders said in the statement.
The other signatories to the statement were National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja, CPI (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, All India Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas, Revolutionary Socialist Party general secretary Manoj Bhattacharya, Indian Union Muslim League general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty, and Communist Party of India (ML)-Liberation general secretary Dipanker Bhattacharya.
Asserting their collective resolve to work together to strengthen the bonds of social harmony, the Opposition leaders said, “We reiterate our commitment to combat and confront the poisonous ideologies which are attempting to entrench divisiveness in our society.”
“We appeal to all sections of the people to maintain peace and foil the sinister objective of those who wish to sharpen communal polarisation. We call upon all our party units across the country to independently and jointly work for maintaining peace and harmony,” they added.
The joint statement follows an opinion piece by Ms. Gandhi in a national daily where she described communal polarisation as a “virus”.
Though there was no reference to any particular incident in the joint statement, communal violence were reported from several parts of the country on the occasion of Ram Navami on April 10.
From the Hijab row in Karnataka to the violence over serving of non-vegetarian food in Jawaharlal Nehru University hostel mess on Ram Navami day, there have been several polarising issues in the public domain.
“We are extremely anguished at the manner in which issues related to food, dress, faith, festivals and language are being deliberately used by sections of the ruling establishment to polarize our society,” the statement said, adding that the growing incidents of hate speech were given “by people, who appear to have official patronage and against whom no meaningful and strong action is being taken”.
“We are deeply concerned, as reports indicate that there is a sinister pattern in the areas where these incidents have occurred. Incendiary hate speeches preceded the aggressive armed religious processions unleashing communal violence,” the statement noted.
