Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 12
Congress president Sonia Gandhi today attacked the Narendra Modi government over communal violence, saying such incidents have been on the rise ever since it came to power. She said this was part of the government’s “deliberate attempt” to divide the people on religious lines.

Speaking at a party forum outside Delhi for the first time after the Congress’ debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, Sonia said recurrence of communal violence in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and some other parts of the country was a “matter of grave concern for all”.

Her attack on the BJP-led NDA Government came days after her son and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi alleged that communal conflicts in Uttar Pradesh had been “deliberately engineered” and stormed into the well of the Lok Sabha demanding a discussion on the situation.

“More than 600 incidents of communal violence took place in Uttar Pradesh and, perhaps, as many in Maharashtra,” she said, adding that “during the UPA I and II rule, hardly any such incident had happened.”

Sonia also criticised the Centre for its failure to come out in expressing solidarity with people of Palestine over Israel’s assault on Gaza, abandoning the policy followed by the country through decades.

Alluding to the reluctance of the government to adopt a resolution on the issue in the Lok Sabha, she said, “This has muted the country’s response to the suffering people and betrayed its long tradition of solidarity with the people in Palestine and the vision of two states existing side-by-side in peace and harmony.” She regretted that the Women Reservation Bill could not be passed when her party was in power. — PTI