By IANS,
New Delhi : Those resorting to divisive politics and violence should be dealt with firmly, mainstream parties said Wednesday — a day after the chief justice warned that such regressive politics was a threat to India’s constitutional order.
“If the chief justice has said this, then it must be taken seriously. A high-level enquiry committee by all parties should be set up and parties guilty of the politics of polarisation, leading to violence, should be banned,” said Kamal Akhter, a Rajya Sabha MP of the Samajwadi Party.
D. Raja, national secretary of the Communist Party of India, said: “Parochial and divisive politics has become a big threat to the rule of law in this country. Such politics is dangerous to the foundation of the constitutional order of the country.”
On Tuesday, Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan had said the recent spate of violence caused by caste, religion, gender, class and regional differences was possibly a strategy to polarise the electorate.
“Some political parties are doing it as an agenda of their political strategy of divisive politics. The central government tries to interfere wherever there are incidents of violence as a result of this divisive politics,” said Manish Tewari, spokesperson of the Congress, which is in power at the centre.
Incidentally, the Congress is also in power in Maharashtra which has seen attacks on north Indians by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party administration has been accused of doing little to stop these attacks.
The country has also seen violence against Christians, particularly in Orissa and Karnataka.
Speaking at a conference for restoration of national values, Chief Justice Balakrishnan had said: “Protests are resorted to on the most flimsiest of reasons and public order is threatened even in circumstances where an inclusive dialogue is the best solution.
“Such a regressive brand of political action is threatening to undo the very foundations on which our constitutional order has been built, namely those of respect for rule of law, equal treatment before the law and due process,” said CJI.