Left asks govt to probe violence against media
New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) The CPI(M) has urged the Manmohan Singh government to order a full-scale inquiry into the activities of a fundamentalist orgnisation which it alleged posed a direct challenge to the freedom of the press and incited communal frenzy.
Referring to the recent ransacking of a Mumbai-based news portal by the Hindu Rashtriya Sena for showing the plight of a couple who went in for an inter-caste marriage, the Left party said an inquiry becomes all the more important for the simple reason that such activities do not spread to other states.
''This will assist in monitoring and enabling prompt action by the relevant authorities against incidents of communal violence,'' CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat said in a letter to Union Home Minister Shivraj V Patil.
A pattern is apparent where communal forces in different states, where the BJP is in office, are trying to whip up communal passions in the name of security of Hindu girls, the letter said, adding that the violence against the news channel was not an incident in isolation.
''Not surprisingly, the protests from these criminals are not out of concern that the girl is a minor, but because of the person she eloped with is a Muslim,'' the letter said.
She said in Bhopal where two consenting adults belonging to two different communities eloped to Mumbai, the family of the Muslim groom had been threatened.
''Violent demonstrations have been staged by the organisation like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal,'' the letter read.
Police went to the extent of arresting the brother of the groom who was released only due to the intervention of the coincidence that recently a CD with inflammatory laungauge and visuals against the constitutional and legal rights of consenting adults in self-choice inter-religious partnerships was released by the BJP during the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, she added.
UNI