BJP communalising Guj fake encounters: Sonia

New Delhi, May 16: Accusing the Opposition BJP of raising communal tensions and passions, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said the revelations on fake encounters in Gujarat reflected the "blatantly partisan attitude" of the Narendra Modi government which has been "giving" communal colour to an issue of human rights."

The killing of innocent people in the garb of fighting terrorism, that too with a high-level patronage, reflected utter and deliberate contempt for the rule of law to promote ideological prejudices, she said.

Addressing the General Body of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP), attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she observed that the performance of the Congress in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections was "very disappointing," and blamed it on the organisational weakness in the state.

Mrs Gandhi, however, expressed happiness that the electorate of UP had dealt a "severe blow" on the "communal BJP" and unseated the party (Samajwadi Party) under whose leadership governance had completely collapsed.

On the forthcoming assembly elections in Gujarat and Goa, she apprehended that the BJP would again whip up communal passions to gain electoral advantage. ''The BJP will undoubtedly raise communal tensions and passions.'' Pointing out that the Congress had fared well in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat, Mrs Gandhi hoped that the state of the Father of the Nation would vote for strengthening the state's tradition of secularism and social harmony.

About the Assembly elections in Goa next month, she said "...here too we are confronting BJP whose single point programme is communal polarisation.'' Deprecating the continuing attacks and atrocities on religious minorities in the BJP-ruled states, Ms Gandhi said her party organisation had exposed the communal designs of the BJP in these states and hoped the Central Government would take a serious note of ''these dangerous trends''.

Reminding the MPs that the UPA government would complete three years in a couple of days, she asked them to highlight the achievements of the government among the people.

The UPA Chairperson referred to violent incidents in some parts of the country over acquisition of land for setting up Special Economic Zones (SEZs), and said the Centre would soon come out with a new rehabilitation and resettlement policy and Land Acquisition Act.

''Our Government is working on a new rehabilitation and resettlement policy, a new resettlement and rehabilitation Bill and on amendments to the existing Land Acquisition Act,'' Mrs Gandhi, who is also the Chairperson of the ruling UPA, said, adding that all these three were expected to be cleared very soon.

Explaining her party's position on the issue, she said land acquisition for these SEZs, ''like indeed for any activity'', must be done in a transparent manner. It must also be done in a manner that fully protected the interests of farmers and of those whose livelihoods were dependent on the pieces of land being acquired.

UNI

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