Politics starts over death of 32 in Assam; BJP, Congress blame each other

NEW DELHI: Violence in Assam claiming 32 lives, days after Narendra Modi spoke about accommodating Hindus from Bangladesh and "packing off " the Muslim immigrants, has triggered a murky blamegame with Congress and other political parties holding BJP’s "divisive agenda" responsible for the bloodshed.

Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan blamed Modi for creating instability in Assam by his speeches in which he raised the Bangladeshi issue. "They always raise this issue during the elections and victims are the poor Muslims in Assam," Khan told mediapersons on Sunday. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee too joined in and offered to "give shelter to the refugees" at an election rally on Sunday. West Bengal is the other state that has a substantial Bangladeshi population.

BJP launched a counter-attack with several of party leaders taking to twitter to respond to charges made by Congress and leaders of some other parties. They shot back by saying that the violence in Assam was the result of years of vote-bank politics pursued by the Congress. Senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar tweeted on Sunday, "Congress directly responsible for Assam violence. Blaming Modi is example of heinous vote bank politics and Congress is stoking communal passions."

Vinay Sahasrabuddhe of RSS linked Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini blamed Indira Gandhi’s Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act of 1983. He wrote on the microblogging site that Assam killings were the "ghastly implications of IMDT Act brought by RaGa’s grandma providing security cover to Bangladeshi infiltrators!"

A senior BJP leader told ET that the violence could be a part of "well thought-out mischief" by Modi’s opponents to propagate his image as a divisive leader. Law minister Kapil Sibal wasted little time in accusing Modi of using divisive rhetoric. He said, "Modi is a model of dividing India."

Strategic affairs expert Ajai Sahni said that going by the pattern of Bodo violence in Assam, it would not be fair to blame Modi. "There has been violence in Assam from time-to-time. It happened in 2011 and also in 2012. It is difficult to tell when precisely it will escalate," he said. However, he added that tensions could have been heightened in atmospherics of elections. Sahni said that the violence was result of frustration among the Bodos.