Rahul Gandhi likely to initiate debate on communal violence bill in Lok Sabha

After remaining silent during the heated debate on the communal violence bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi is likely to start the debate on the bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_1663859” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is likely to start the debate on communal violence bill in the Lok Sabha. PTI[/caption] Last week, an angry Rahul Gandhi had led the protest in the well of the Lok Sabha, demanding a debate on incidents of communal violence in the country. Standing outside the parliament, Rahul had accused Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan of “one-sided partiality”. Yet, on Wednesday, the Congress Vice President was not one of the four speakers whose names were forwarded by the Congress for participation on the communal violence debate that took place on Wednesday and will continue on Thursday. As parliament on Wednesday debated the communal violence bill, the Congress launched an all-out attack on the Narendra Modi government, with party president Sonia Gandhi alleging an “alarming increase in the number of incidents of communal violence” since the BJP came to power. Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress party leader in the Lok Sabha, said more than 600 incidents of communal violence had been orchestrated to polarise voters. Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Central Hall of parliament, Gandhi said there was a growing concern, particularly among women and minorities, on whether the Bharatiya Janata Party was seeking to “profit from dividing the country on sectarian lines”. “There is a great deal of concern in the country, particularly among women and minorities, the poor, about whether the BJP and its sister organisations mean to work for all of India’s communities, or whether they seek to profit from dividing the nation on sectarian lines,” Gandhi said. She added that the BJP showed in its 10 weeks in power that it was governing “without policies”. Gandhi drew a connection between the rise in communal violence and radical utterances by some BJP leaders. “Already since the BJP has come to power, there has been an alarming increase in the number of incidents of communal violence. In addition, there have been other subtle but pernicious signals of intolerance,” Gandhi said, addressing the Congress MPs, which included former prime minister Manmohan Singh. (With inputs from IANS)