Omar Abdullah fears more communal strife before Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today voiced apprehensions that more attempts would be made in the country to weaken the social fabric and to polarise communities in the run up to 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Appealing to political parties to desist from dividing communities, the Chief Minister spoke candidly about the recent communal violence in Kishtwar area of his state and in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Omar told the National Integration Council ( NIC) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the riots in Kishtwar were unfortunate although the area had been free from communal trouble for the last four years.

Without naming BJP directly, Omar said before the 2008 state assembly polls also an effort had been made to use the communal card. After the recent violence in Kishtwar, attempts were also made to spread trouble to Jammu but his government had brought the situation under control within 24 hours.

The Chief Minister referred to last week's visit by the Prime Minister to riot-hit Muzaffarnagar which was described by BJP as "secular tourism" and said political parties should be "a little less hypocritical".

In an apparent reference to an attempt by BJP leader Arun Jaitley to travel to Kishtwar during communal violence there in the second week of August this year, Omar said if the Prime Minister's visit has been called as "secular tourism", should the thwarted attempt to travel to Kishtwar be dubbed "communal tourism". "This sort of language doesn't help," he said.

Omar objected to the communal incidents in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast being treated separately in the agenda papers circulated to the members of the NIC. "Why are you treating us separately?" he asked Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

Shinde responded that this would be kept in mind and rectified in the future.