Divided we stand, say UPA and NDA on terror

New Delhi: The battle for votes between the UPA and NDA got bigger on Monday during the National Integration Council meeting.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lashed out at communal politics, while the NDA accused him of being too soft on terror.

“My heart is pained when I see what is happening in Orissa and Karnataka. Right thinking individuals would be pained with what is happening,” Manmohan Singh said while launching the war against the Opposition, instead of a war on terror.

Clearly on the backfoot, for not including terrorism in the initial agenda of the council meet, the Prime Minister chose to convert the debate into a communalism versus terrorism one.

The UPA was keen on focusing the spread of communalism in NDA-ruled states and the BJP was adamant on declaring the Centre as soft in tackling terror.

"The UPA Government is reluctant to even use the word terrorism. Instead, it is using extremism. It is pandering to its vote banks,” Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said.

In this battle it was the NDA which managed to set the agenda to a large extent.

In an indirect reference to the outrage witnessed in many sections of the Muslim community after the Jamia encounter, the Prime Minister clarified that taking on terrorists did not necessarily mean targetting a specific community.

"No compromise with terrorism, it must be dealt with firmly. In trying to counter terrorism, wring methods should not be adopted. Any impression that any community or section is being targeted or there is some kind of profiling which is being attempted should be avoided,” Manmohan Singh said.

By the end of the meeting, the divide between what UPA saw as extremism and what the NDA interpreted as terrorism had got sharper.

UPA advocated a ban on Bajrang Dal and NDA questioned why the Government was muted in its criticism of SIMI.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa said, "The meeting was called to appease minorities."

At the end of the day it was a meeting called in the name of integration that presented only disintegrated views.

(With inputs from Sumon Chakrabarti and Meetu Jain)