Congress urges PM Modi to act against those making communal statements

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come down heavily on those making communal statements, saying it brings bad name to the country.

He also criticized the BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders for making provocative and inflammatory statements.

Expressing grave concern with regard to what is happening in India, Sharma questioned Prime Minister Modi's silence on this matter.

Highlighting the provocative and inflammatory statements that have been made by many leaders of BJP and Sangh Parivar, including the Members of Parliament, Sharma said: "The Prime Minister has to register this, that's what we said in the Parliament in the last session repeatedly. The violations are going on. We can only say that Prime Minister has been silent on it and it would be construed as that he is complicit otherwise he has to come down heavily and stop these things. It is bringing bad name to India," Sharma told ANI here while commenting on U.S. President Barack Obama's statement on religious intolerance in India.

"If you have vandalisation of Mosques, Churches, if you have riots where people are killed then in today's world the information travels all over the globe. There would be concerns, nobody wants India, which is the largest democracy and the land of Gandhi, to be challenged by such forces," he added.

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Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, the U.S. President yesterday said the acts of intolerance experienced by religious faiths of all types in India in the past few years would have shocked Gandhi.

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He, however, did not name any particular religion and said the violence is not unique to one group or one religion.

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Earlier in an address at New Delhi's Siri Fort auditorium on January 27 during the last leg of his India trip, Obama had made a strong pitch for religious tolerance, cautioning that India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith.