Trinamool pulls up Govt over attacks on Christians

Political observers attribute Trinamool’s stand to realpolitik. Ever since it aligned with the BJP, the party has been anxious about minority support in West Bengal and now that it’s in the process of sewing up an alliance wih the Congress for local elections in the state, all the more reason for it to take a publicly vocal stand against attacks on minorities.

So without mincing any words, Bandhopadyay initiated the zero-hour discussion by saying that minorities were feeling helpless and the “heinous attacks” on them had to stop at any cost. He demanded exemplary punishment to the culprits, “whether they belong to the Bajrang Dal or any other group.” The Congress, Samajwadi Party and others followed suit moments after Trinamool’s tirade.

Union Minister Pramod Mahajan tried to subdue frayed tempers by announcing that “on behalf of the Government of India” he would ask Home Minister L K Advani to personally talk with the Chief Ministers of the affected States. “The safety of minorities, whether they are Hindus in Kashmir or Muslims and Christians elsewhere, is uppermost in the mind of the Government,” he claimed.

Earlier, Deputy Leader of Opposition Madhavrao Scindia urged everybody to keep their emotions in check and punish the culprits, whichever community they belonged to. Demanding a statement from the Home Minister, he wanted to know when was the last time the National Integration Cell (NIC) had met.

Mahajan also claimed that he would urge the Prime Minister to soon convene a meeting of the NIC.

The impromptu debate on the matter during the zero hour that caught the BJP on the backfoot was not limited to heated arguments alone. Film actor-turned-MP from Agra, Raj Babbar, made sure his contribution to the proceedings remained a notch above others. After all, the latest attacks took place near Agra in the city of Taj Mahal. Twice, Babbar rushed to the well of the House, demanding action against the guilty. Repeated pleas by the Speaker to go back went unheeded, and in the end it took Samajwadi Party’s supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to cool him down.

Babbar claimed that even on April 9, two clergymen in Agra were illegally detained by a police constable and were released only after he approached the area DIG.

Somnath Chaterjee of the CPI(M) said the attack on minorities was not a sudden and solitary incident. “This is a sort of `jehad’ against the Christians and other minority communities,” he alleged.