Re-emergence of Kamandal, Mandal worries Left

New Delhi, May 15: Expressing anguish over the BJP's attempts to stir up communal passions over the Doda killings, the Left parties today alleged that the real motive behind its Adjournment Motion on the issue was to scuttle debate on recent communal riots in Gujarat.

The leaders of the CPI(M), CPI and RSP also condemned the lathicharge on the agitating medical students opposing the reservations in higher educational institutions, while calling on a section of the media not to whip up sentiments as done during Madnal agitation in 1990.

''We do condemn these killings. But this is not an isolated incident,'' CPI(M) floor leaders in Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia and Mohammad Salim said at a press conference in the precincts of the Parliament.

The CPI(M) leaders said the BJP did not find it necessary to move the Adjournment Motion on May 10 when the session began, observing that the issue was ''different'' then.

''There have been several such incidents. Not only Hindus but Muslims and Sikhs have been killed in terrorist violence. But why does the BJP want to single out the issue?'' they said, charging it with having a ''sinister design'' of again making attempts to ''rake up the Hindutva and other divisive agenda'' to prevent discussion on issues of national importance -- import of wheat, price rise of essential commodities, particularly that of cement, communal violence in Vadodara, displacement of tribals and the landless among other things.

Initating discussion on the Adjournment Motion, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani had accused the government of its failure to control the ''religious cleansing'' operation, launched by the miltiants in the state.

His Rajya Sabha counterpart Jaswant Singh went to the extent of describing the killings as ''genocide and ethnic cleaning'' and dubbed it as a combination of four fold factors, genocide, ethnic cleansing, acts of terror and more importantly, the attitude of the state chief minsiter and Home Minister.

UNI