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Politicisation of terror must end: Congress

Special Correspondent

“Riots lead to communalisation"
BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal will have to introspect

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday sought to initiate a public debate on building a national consensus on how the country should fight terror and suggested that politicisation of terror strikes be stopped.

“We should have a consensus on how to deal with terrorism. The level of discourse on this issue [currently] only gives strength to anti-national forces and this also affects the morale of our brave soldiers,” party spokesman Manish Tewari said here.

There must be an immediate stop to communalising society, he said. Studies showed that in the last 15 years, recruitment by terror networks had been made in areas where communal clashes took place.

“Communal riots lead to communalisation, which swells the ranks of terrorists,” Mr. Tewari said. He said the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal would have to do some serious introspection on their conduct during the last 15 years.

The fight against terror required that the security of the state be supreme and articulation of grievance through violent means would not be tolerated. The state would place equal demands on all citizens.

Finally, irrespective of political ideologies, both the Centre and the States would work collectively to end the menace of terrorism.

Mr. Tewari said that while the Congress did not want to join issue with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, it wanted to put the record straight on the question of information that he had claimed to have given to the Union government.

He said that during February, the Centre had told both the Gujarat and Rajasthan governments that it apprehended terrorist strikes in Jaipur and Ahmedabad and had given the names of 16 people, who were likely to cause the incidents.

The Gujarat government could have prevented the blasts had it arrested these 16 people, whom it did nab eventually after the attack, he said.

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