308 communal incidents till June: Govt

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NEW DELHI (TIP):
Even as the Congress party tried to corner the BJP-led NDA government on communal riots, fresh data showed that the country witnessed 308 communal incidents this year until June, with Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka topping the list. An analysis of two sets of statistics provided by the government over a period of one month also showed that there was a surge in communal incidents in the two months of May and June with 113 cases compared to the first four months of the year, which reported 195 incidents.

The government placed the statistics in the Rajya Sabha through a written reply on Tuesday on a day when Congress forced the government to discuss the “need for more effective mechanisms to deal with communal violence”. The Congress has been alleging that there is an increase in communal riots in the country after the new government took over on May 26. Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that 600 communal incidents took place after the Modi government took over, an allegation vehemently contested by the BJP.

Kharge’s claim could not be backed by any official data and when countered, he himself cited the figures for May and June. “Why are these incidents happening now? What is the reason? Who is behind these? These have increased in the last 2- 3 months since the new government came. This is not a good sign,” Kharge said in the Lok Sabha. As per the fresh figures, the Union Home Ministry said Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of communal incidents this year at 56 followed by Maharashtra at 51 and Karnataka 44.

Telangana, which came into existence on June 2, has already registered one case of communal incident. Interestingly, almost half (27) of the communal incidents (56) in UP took place during May and June while the 20 in Maharashtra took place during the same period. In Karnataka, 11 incidents took place during these two months. Gujarat reported 26 incidents out of which 11 happened in May and June. In these two months alone, 15 people were killed and 318 injured. Last year, the communal incidents numbered 823 while in 2012 it was 668. In 2010, it was 580. Except for 2011, Uttar Pradesh topped the list.

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