GUWAHATI, Oct 31 - The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has alleged that the latest incidents of religious intolerance in the country have been exposing the hidden agenda of Hindutvabad of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There are ample grounds to doubt that the saffron party, together with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS), is also attempting at effecting a rift among the people of Assam on communal lines with an eye on the 2016 Assembly elections, said the APCC.
It further said that the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issues concerning the incidents of communal intolerance has been encouraging the perpetrators of such offences.
Significantly, over 42 litterateurs have returned their Sahitya Akademi Awards, while 53 historians have announced their resolve to return their awards and noted scientist PM Bhargava has also announced his decision to return the Padma Bhushan reacting to such incidents of intolerance, said APCC vice -president Ripun Bora in a statement here.
The incidents like the BJP-Shiv Sena-led Government in Maharashtra has decided to ban beef, killing a person at Dadri in UP on the basis of a mere suspicion of taking beef, assaulting a Muslim legislator of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for organising a feast at his residence where beef was served, among others, have smeared the secular image of India.
Again, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs VK Singh likening the Dalits with dogs, while speaking on a case of arson at Monepara in Haryana, in which two Dalit children were killed, also puts the country to shame.
But neither the BJP nor the Union Government led by it has taken any step to prevent such incidents. These incidents remind one of the gruesome incidents of killing of hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat. But the Prime Minister maintains a blissful silence over such developments, alleged the APCC vice president and made an appeal to all the secular forces to unite against the BJP and the RSS.
