Balbir Punj says Communal Violence Bill a diversionary tactic by Congress

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Balbir Punj on Tuesday said the Congress was playing a dirty game and trying to divert people's attention from its inefficiencies and communalize the elections by introducing the Communal Violence Bill in the Parliament. .

"The Congress government has been a gross failure on all fronts, security of the country, employment, corruption and inflation. Therefore, it is trying to divert the attention of the people through the Communal Violence Bill," said Punj.

'The Congress is playing a solitary and dirty game. They are trying to communalize the elections by dividing the Hindu and Muslim electorates," he said.

"We are not going to let the Congress succeed in this dirty game. We will oppose it," he added.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had indicated that the cabinet had approved the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill on Monday.

Earlier, Modi had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which he termed the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill as ill conceived, poorly drafted and a recipe for disaster.

Modi and the rest of the BJP top brass have claimed that the Bill could vitiate the atmosphere and polarize Indian society.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Modi had described the bill as an attempt to encroach upon the authorities of the state governments and sought wider consultation among the various stakeholders such as the state governments, political parties, and police and security agencies, before any further movement on the issue.

The Gujarat Chief Minister said his government is sensitive to the issue of communal violence and agreed that there is a need to be vigilant on communal violence but the contents and timing of the bill are suspicious.

Responding to Modi's criticism of the government's Prevention of Communal Violence Bill, Manmohan Singh had said that it would be his endeavor to develop a broad-based consensus on the proposed legislation.