Politics “sought to be given the garb of nationalism is nothing but majority communalism,” Party General Secretary Prakash Karat said at the 15th meeting of the National Integration Council. “Minority communalism also mirrors this approach and weakens secularism,” he added.
“Till political parties eschew all forms of communal politics, the problem of communalism will remain,” he said, adding that terrorism could be successfully combated “only when communalism and religious extremism are firmly checked.”
Observing that a major source of terrorism was religious extremism and communal hatred, he said it was “not enough to say ‘terrorists have no religion’ when we know that religious extremism and communalism are breeding grounds for terrorism. There is a direct link between communalism and terrorism in India.”
Stressing the need for legislation on communal violence, he said it should give teeth to the administrative and legal measures that have to be taken to curb communal violence and ensure speedy punishment for the perpetrators.
However, the law should be in keeping with the federal principle wherein the state governments have the primary responsibility of maintenance of law and order and policing.
Such a measure should only focus on ‘communal violence’ and “not broaden itself to other forms of conflicts and violence”, Mr. Karat said.