BJP demands judicial inquiry into stoning incident at CPI(M) HQ

New Delhi, Mar 10 (UNI) Accusing the UPA government for protecting the CPI(M) in yesterday's stoning incident here, the BJP today demanded a judicial inquiry into it, alleging it was the Left activists who first stoned the Hindu Sabha whereas the BJP workers had gone there just to hand over a memorandum to CPI(M) leaders against the killing of RSS men in Kerala.

Talking to newspersons, BJP Parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that several Hindu Sabha members and BJP workers were injured, eight of them seriously, in the stoning by CPM men, when they had gone to the CPI(M) Headquarters here to draw their attention towards barbarous killings of the RSS men.

He alleged that the BJP had lodged a protest with the police which had so far not registered the case even on the basis of the First Information Report. He alleged it was not being registered at the behest of the UPA government which was surviving with the support of the Left parties.

He said the party had information that senior CPI(M) leaders including Mr Sitaram Yechury were inciting their cadres to attack the peaceful protesters.

Mr Malhotra said the inquiry should go into the footage of various TV channels which showed that CPI(M) started throwing stones at the peaceful workers. ''If the BJP had any intention to attack the CPM, then only a handful workers would have not gone there. The party has a capacity to get 25,000 to 30,000 of its workers at a call,'' he added.

Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu accused the CPI(M) of ruling the Kerala state by 'terror'. The CPM cadres had been involved in violence in Nandigram and Singur. In Kannur, the constituency of Kerala Home Minister, the police was acting in a partisan manner and were forcing the non-CPM workers to leave their houses. He demanded that a parliamentary delegation of all parties be sent to Kannur and other affected areas for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

He regretted that the Leftists were not allowing any discussion in Parliament on the issue of violence in Kerala. He said the resistance to CPI(M) attack had become intense with the people from backward classes joining the ranks and this was not acceptable to CPI(M).

Mr Naidu, who was in Kerala yesterday, specifically referred to the manner in which a student leader appearing for the examination was maimed and the teacher who was taking a class was killed.

UNI KAS/MCN PK AS1717