NEW DELHI, 1 May — India’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government came under scathing attack in Parliament yesterday for its handling of sectarian violence in Gujarat state.
Following some shrewd political bargaining, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s ruling coalition was virtually assured of the necessary numbers to defeat the motion, but looked fragile in the face of the opposition’s verbal assault and defections by some of its own partners.
The political fallout was underlined on Monday when Coal and Mines Minister Ram Vilas Paswan resigned in protest at the inability of the authorities to curb the Hindu-Muslim unrest in Gujarat that has claimed more than 900 lives in the past two months.
Hours before yesterday’s debate, junior foreign minister Omar Abdullah also offered to resign after his National Conference party — another coalition member — decided to abstain from voting.
Meanwhile, three more people were killed in Gujarat overnight as police fired on Hindu and Muslim mobs who clashed in two cities, burning shops, homes and vehicles.
Speaking in the debate in the lower house, opposition leader Sonia Gandhi reiterated calls for the immediate dismissal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and launched a personal attack on Vajpayee and his Hindu nationalist BJP party for their handling of the crisis. She highlighted the apparent discrepancy between Vajpayee’s initial appeals for communal harmony in BJP-ruled Gujarat and later remarks that Muslims were incapable of living in peace with other communities.
"One day he offers sympathy, the next day he condemns the whole community," she said.
"When the prime minister himself engages in such double-speak, what can the nation expect from his government?"
Warning that the unabated violence in Gujarat had tarnished India’s image "the world over", Gandhi appealed to Vajpayee’s "nobler instincts" to rise above party considerations, bring the guilty to book and sack Modi for failing in his constitutional duties.
In a report published Monday, the US-based Human Rights Watch said BJP members were directly implicated in the killings of hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat, and accused the state government of engaging in a "massive cover-up".
Defending the government in Parliament, Sports Minister Uma Bharti accused the opposition of exploiting the issue of communal tension in a futile attempt to undermine the government and return to power.
