Adopting a tough stance today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged groups resorting to violence to test and demonstrate their popularity through the poll process instead, adding that no quarter would be given to communalism, insurgency and violence.At the meeting of the National Integration Council (NIC)—attended by most state chief ministers—the PM said that there was no grievance which could not be redressed through dialogue and democratic means. ‘‘Every political group that claims to represent the interests of any section of our people must test and demonstrate its popularity through the institutions of our democracy,’’ he said.Singh made it clear that violence and extremism would not be tolerated. ‘‘No one has the right to take the law into their own hands,’’ he said. ‘‘No society can pardon those who kill innocent people. Faced with such terror tactics, the government will have no other option than to fight such groups and their ideology of hatred.’’While emphasising national integration and the core value of tolerance, the PM said that any overt challenges would be dealt with firmly—whether from communalism, extremism, separatism or insurgency.
