Atrocities on the rise: Cong team

The team is to submit report to AICC president Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

Ravi and his team-mates said the administration and police had done nothing to prevent violence against the minorities. 8220;They have been abetting the crimes under the protection of higher-ups,8221; he said.

Describing the Bajrang Dal as nothing better than a bunch of anti-socials, Ravi said their activities were fuelling the growth of fundamentalism in the state.

Citing the instance of the burning of copies of the New Testament at I.P. Mission School, Rajkot, Ravi said the police had stood mute witness to the incident and taken a statement from the school authorities that suited the culprits.

The government decision to set up a cell to probe forced marriages was, he said, indicative of the fact that the government blindly disapproved of inter-religious marriages.

Now the Bajrang Dal, which till now was targeting Muslims, had also turned its attention to Christians. The increased violence against minorities was symptomatic of fascism, he said.

About the Kheda incident in which a body was dug out from a grave and placed outside a church, Ravi asked, 8220;Which religion permits insulting the dead? The burial had in fact taken place in the presence of police, as the place was a Christian cemetery. But then why police let others dig up the coffin?8221; He said that if people had problems they should approach the law-enforcing agencies, but the VHP and the Bajrang Dal were defying the legal set-up by taking law into their own hands.

ENS adds from Ahmedabad: Congress MPs Vayalar Ravi and Vimla Varma have warned the State Government against communalisation of police and asked it to stop misuse of PASA against the minorities.

After visiting the trouble-torn areas of south Gujarat with Varma and State Congress president C D Patel on Thursday, Ravi accused the State Government of being in connivance with the VHP-Bajrang Dal when it came to dealing with complaints of harassment from minorities. He said PASA should be invoked against the VHP-Bajrang Dal activists who were spreading terror among the people by whipping up slogans like 8220;Pehle kasai phir Isai8221; It is the turn of the butcher first then the Christian, meaning to persecute them.

Ravi also came down heavily upon the Government resolution announcing a cell to take up complaints of forced8217; marriages. 8220;Why is the cell for? Is it to receive complaints and harass the people?8221; he asked, charging the Government with indirectly helping the VHP-Bajrang Dal8217;s minority-bashing plans by issuing this resolution. He demanded that the government must protect interests of minorities.

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