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More anti-minority violence under BJP: NCM chief

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The National Commission for Minorities says there has been a significant difference in atrocities against the minorities after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took over at the Centre in March 1998.

In the year before the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government assumed office, the complaints pertained to religion-based discrimination and denial of constitutional rights to the minorities, NCM Chairman Tahir Mahmood said in an interview to a local newspaper during his Goa visit.

After the BJP came to power, the complaints related to atrocities against the minorities, including physical violence and vandalism.

He blamed the central and the state governments concerned for their failure to control the situation. "The trouble had to be nipped in the bud, learning a lesson from the first tragedy in Gujarat," he said.

Dismissing the contention that all the incidents were isolated and stray in nature, Mahmood said, ''Why is the same community being victimised time and again? The very fact that only Christians have been at the receiving end is enough to show that they cannot be treated as isolated cases."

He said the NCW investigation in the affected states has revealed that the crimes had been perpetrated by certain elements. He, however, refused to name them.

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