Orissa, K’taka violence likely to rule NIC meet

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Communal violence in Orissa and Karnataka is expected to dominate the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting here on Monday with some participants likely to raise demands for banning Bajrang Dal.

The meeting, to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will aim at evolving ways to tackle such situations which impact upon national integration. It is also expected to discuss ways to improve coordination between the Centre and states in curbing communal violence as also terrorism, which has witnessed a spurt in the recent months.

BJP chief ministers, including Gujarat's Narendra Modi, are expected to counter any calls for ban on Bajrang Dal. Amid continued attacks against Christians allegedly by Bajrang Dal in Orissa and Karnataka, pressure is being mounted on the Centre to ban the Sangh Parivar outfit and dismiss the Naveen Patnaik government.

The UPA government has discussed these demands a number of times but has failed to take any decision because of lack of consensus. LJP and RJD have been forcefully demanding a ban on Bajrang Dal and imposition of President's rule in Orissa but some other UPA constituents like DMK, PMK and NCP are opposed to it. Law minister HR Bhardwaj is of the view that a ban on Bajrang Dal should stand the scrutiny of the court of law and should not face the same fate as in the case of SIMI.

To strengthen the case against Bajrang Dal and VHP, he said adequate evidence was needed to be collected before banning the outfits.

Even as the home minister said that more information about Bajrang Dal and VHP was being gathered, RJD leader Lalu Prasad and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan expressed their displeasure at the "delay" in collecting evidence against the Hindu outfits.

Besides communal violence, the NIC will also discuss terrorism, which has witnessed a spurt recently. This has been attributed to the lack of coordination between the Central and state forces and absence of a federal agency to deal effectivy with such cross-country menace.