Don't target on basis of religion as it would widen gap: Patil

New Delhi, Nov 27 (UNI) The Rajya Sabha today witnessed noisy scenes with the opposition blaming the government with ''appeasing minorities while the members of the treasury benches asking them not to highlight the religious community of terrorists ''as they had no religion.'' Home Minister Shivraj Patil condemned the targeting of anyone on the basis of caste, creed or religion as it would only widen the already existing divide in the country and stressed that terrorists have no religion.

Participating in the short duration discussion over the Internal Security Scenario in the Country, Shiv Sena leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi charged the government and the Congress party with indulging in appeasement of minorities and said that this was causing internal disturbances in many parts of the country. He also charged the government of not taking effective steps to curb ''Islamic Terrorism and Maoist Insurgency.'' However, his remark that not only poor, illiterate and unemployed Muslims were indulging in acts of terrorism but recent incidents have shown that even educated people of the community were involved in acts of terrorism enraged many Congress members who stood up to counter with the assertion that ''terrorists had no religion and member of any community could be involved in such acts.'' They asked the Shiv Sena leader to retract his comment.

Mr Joshi tried to explain the logic behind his comment by stating that under no rule of the house, were members debarred from mentioning the community of the persons. He said that the convictions in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts had revealed who were involved in such acts.

At this, Congress' V Narayansamy and many other members took strong objections and in response, some BJP members stood up.

Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan said that the country was already facing a lot of problems and members should not say anything that hurt the sentiments of each other. Despite repeated pleas by the Deputy Chairman, the members continued shouting at each other, forcing him to adjourn the house for the day.

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