UPA has failed to confront Hindutva: CPI-M

Accusing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to "polarise" society on various issues, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday charged the United Progressive Alliance government with failing to confront Hindutva forces and adopting a "vacillating" attitude on the issue.

"It is most unfortunate that the UPA government, whose formation was made possible by secular forces, has been unable to confront the Hindutva forces and on the contrary adopted a vacillating position," CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat told a press conference on the sidelines of the 19th CPI-M Congress.

This, he said, was "seen in the unwillingness to punish those guilty of complicity in communal rioting and carnage, to help the victims to access justice, rehabilitation and compensation and to punish the guilty."

Asked to comment on the electoral losses to Congress in recent assembly polls, he said "We want them to fight the BJP and not to underestimate the necessity to fight communal forces."

The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra had not punished those found guilty of the 1992-93 riots by the Srikrishna Commission, he said, adding the UPA government at the Centre had failed to refer Gujarat riot cases to the CBI.

The government was yet to pass a comprehensive law to deal with communal violence, he said quoting resolutions unanimously adopted at the party Congress.

Observing that the Sachar Committee report on the conditions of Muslims was "an exposure of the scant government attention" paid to the genuine needs of the community, Karat said it was "unfortunate" that government had not accepted the CPI-M's demand for evolving a sub-plan for minorities.