Don't be 'mere onlook' on Vadodara violence: Left tells Centre

NEW DELHI: Left parties on Wednesday asked the Centre not to remain a 'mere onlooker' and take action to check communal violence in Vadodara and ensure that minorities were protected by the administration.

CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here and pointed out that what started as a problem in widening a road got converted into a communal flare-up.

"This has to be prevented and nipped in the bud", Bardhan said and urged the Prime Minister that the Centre "should not be a mere onlooker and do whatever is in its powers".

According to a CPI statement, the Prime Minister said the government was monitoring the situation throughout and the Home Minister was in constant touch with all concerned on the steps that needed to be taken.

Expressing concern over the turn of events in Vadodara, the CPI(M) also asked the Centre to take immediate steps to ensure that the administration protected the minorities and deployment of security forces.

"Despite the clear warning sent by the demolition of the dargah, the administration has not taken any initiative. In fact they have allowed the mobs to attack and brutally kill a person in his car and colonies are being threatened," the party Polit Bureau said in a statement.

Observing that these were the same areas where the 2002 riots had taken place, it alleged that the administration was 'refusing to take action against the communal forces'.