The Congress Saturday condemned the violence in Assam and blamed the BJP and its leader Narendra Modi for creating a "communal atmosphere" in the country.
Party spokesperson and union minister Kapil Sibal said at a briefing at the Congress headquarters in Delhi that "I want to, on behalf of the president of the Congress party, the vice president and the entire Congress party condemn in the strongest possible terms the violence perpetrated in Assam".
Sibal claimed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an auxiliary group associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, started the agenda of "dividing the polity" by launching the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in 1984.
"The BJP embraced it and (senior BJP leader L.K.) Advani thought of the Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1991. Dec 6, 1992, the act of demolishing the Babri Masjid (in Ayodhya) was committed by leaders of the BJP. Nearly 500 people were killed in the Somnath-Ayodhya Yatra and after 1992, roughly 1,700 were killed. In 1995, they decided to have a similar march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. You are looking at a pattern which is prevalent from 1984 onwards. There were Gujarat riots in 2002," said Sibal.
Quoting from the website of Modi, Sibal said it credits the Gujarat chief minister with organising the two yatras starting from Somnath and Kanyakumari.
"Now they admit that in 1998 when they came in power, the credit goes to Modi because of Rath Yatra and march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, which is purely a communal agenda and they admit it also that they will come to power on the basis of this communal agenda," alleged Sibal.
He alleged that post the Gujarat riots, Modi made provocative statements against the main minority community in the state.
Sibal appealed that "people of the nation should recognise his masked face. Democracy should not be put at stake."
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