-Deccan Chronicle The first time I ever had to get back to my car within five minutes of stepping out to cover an event was on April 7 this year. Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was visiting the riot affected areas of Shamli and was scheduled to address a rally as a part of his political campaign. Teenage boys on tractors, young men on the roof of buses, men in the...
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Communal riots rose by 25 per cent in 2013, says MHA data -Rahul Tripathi
-The Indian Express The southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala also figure prominently in the list. The year before the Lok Sabha elections, 2013, saw communal rioting incidents in the country jumping by nearly 25 per cent, with Uttar Pradesh, which witnessed major religious clashes in Muzaffarnagar, being the worst affected with 247 incidents compared to 118 in 2012. Data from the Union home ministry (MHA) shows that states such as UP,...
More »‘Development is intrinsic to a secular project’-Garimella Subramaniam
-The Hindu If some communities have been denied the benefits of development on grounds of religion, this development is anti-secular, argues Rajeev Bhargava, political theorist Arch rivals the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party continue to trade accusations against each other of playing the communal card in the campaign to the general elections. These are classic instances of the confusion over what secularism is in India. Restoring clarity on the conceptual aspects...
More »Communal clashes soar in Bengal-Madhuparna Das
-The Indian Express Govt officials, opposition question Mamata doles to Muslims Kolkata: Communal clashes have jumped in rural Bengal, police records show. Such incidents, annually between 12 and 40 for five years until 2012, peaked at 106 last year. Government officials fear that in an election year, the growing conflict could lead to polarisation of the electorate. West Bengal has always been considered a peaceful state in terms of communal amity. But the...
More »UP worst in riots record, Maharashtra next
-PTI A maximum of 247 communal violence-related incidents, which claimed 77 lives, took place in Uttar Pradesh in 2013, the government told Rajya Sabha today. Maharashtra came next with 88 communal violence incidents last year followed by Madhya Pradesh (84), Karnataka (73), Gujarat (68), Bihar (63) and Rajasthan (52). While 12 people were killed in Maharashtra in these incidents, 11 people were killed in MP during the same period. Uttar Pradesh...
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