Muzaffarnagar riots perfect backdrop for BJP to anoint Modi as PM hopeful: CPI(M)

NEW DELHI: Accusing RSS-BJP of sharpening communal divide for electoral gains, CPI(M) today said the death and displacement of a large number of people in the Muzaffarnagar riots was the "perfect backdrop" for BJP to anoint Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate.

The "ghastly" communal violence in Muzaffarnagar has served as "the perfect backdrop for BJP to announce the anointment of the Gujarat Chief Minister as its prime ministerial prospect in the coming 2014 general elections," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said.

He said, "Even the remotest of doubts regarding the RSS- BJP's intensions of using the sharpening of communal polarisation as its prime electoral card are set at rest by the proud assertions of the VHP leader Ashok Singhal," who reportedly equated the riots in Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar.

In an editorial in party organ People's Democracy, Yechury said such statements show that RSS-BJP "no longer require a mukhota like Atal Behari Vajpayee" to push its stand that has led major allies like JD(U) to exit from NDA.

"Thus the irreconcilable contradiction that plagues any coalition led by the BJP has, once again, come to the fore," he said.

If the NDA coalition has to be strong enough to command a majority, then BJP would have to put its "core communal agenda on the back-burner". But unless the communal agenda is aggressively pursued as directed by RSS, BJP would not be able to either consolidate or expand its own political base, he said.