Communal violence up since BJP formed govt

Thiruvananthapuram: In a sharp attack on the ruling BJP, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said communal violence had "increased drastically" since the new government took charge in May. At a meeting of Congress leaders in Kerala, Gandhi said communal violence had increased in states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in the past 11 weeks since the BJP came to power.

"During UPA 1 and 2, there were hardly such instances. But in a very short span we have had nothing less than 600 incidents of communal violence in UP and perhaps as many in Maharashtra. Why suddenly all these communal instances after the BJP came to power? These instances are deliberately created to divide our society on religious lines. We must condemn this," she said. Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu asked the party to "introspect" before making such "baseless allegations". "Congress and communalism go hand and hand. It is the Congress party's divisive politics and communal agenda which has brought the country to this state," the senior BJP leader said.

Meanwhile, making a strong pitch for the Women's Reservation Bill, Sonia Gandhi said her party would press the BJP-led NDA government to pass it in the Lok Sabha. Gandhi said the Congress was determined to fulfil the commitment for women in the country.

Stating that the previous UPA government initiated various schemes for the empowerment of women and initiated new laws for the protection of women and children, she said, "My only regret is that we could not pass the Women's Reservation Bill (that provides for 33 per cent reservation of seats for women in Parliament and state Assemblies) in Parliament, even though it was introduced in Rajya Sabha."