(HOLD) CPI-ML booklet outlines western UP's communal scene

The Communist Party of India-ML Saturday released an exhaustive report as a 32-page booklet on the communal situation in western Uttar Pradesh.

The booklet titled "Paschimi Uttar Pradesh: Sampradayik Fasivaad ki nayi Prayogshala CPI(ML) ki tathyatmak padtaal" (Western UP: the new laboratory of communal fascism -- a factual account) accuses the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of inciting communal passions in western UP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.

Releasing the booklet at the UP Press Club, senior Left leader and CPI-M politburo member Mohd. Salim said the BJP was trying to foment similar passions "with renewed energy" in wake of its Mission 2017 when assembly polls will be held.

He accused the BJP of inciting people over small rumours and frivilous incidents and giving them a communal tinge.

Salim said: "The BJP under directions from the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh is out in a planned way to destroy the social fabric of the country and state, as a result of which communal hatred is making serious inroads in western UP."

Citing "Love Jihad" and religious conversions as examples of the BJP agenda, the Left leader added that after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government took over in Delhi, communal incidents have gone up in many parts of the country.

He said that the CPI-ML had undertaken a detailed fact-finding mission in western UP to get to the bottom of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots that killed 63 and displaced several thousands.

Salim said he himself, All India Kisan Mahasabha state president Jay Prakash Narain and state committee member Ramayan Ram were tasked to carry out the scrutiny.

The booklet, he added, was a product of this probe. Earlier the CPI-ML had also released a booklet based on the criminal and political conspiracy behind the Muzaffarnagar riots.