Indian Coalition Faces Criticism After New Clashes
Opposition lawmakers said they wanted firm action from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led national coalition to stop the country's worst religious bloodletting in a decade in Gujarat.
Eight people were killed in Gujarat's main city Ahmedabad at the weekend after Hindus objected to the return of a group of Muslims to their homes from a nearby refugee camp, a police officer said. Forty were injured, Reuters reported.
"It is a very serious situation, what we expect from the government is immediate relief to people in camps, a sense of security to them, and an impartial inquiry into the incidents of violence," said Eduardo Faleiro, a leader of the main opposition Congress Party.
More than 850 people, mostly Muslims, have died in reprisal attacks across Gujarat after a Muslim mob burnt alive 59 Hindus in a train in late February.
The ruling coalition has sought to avoid a vote in the Upper House of Parliament on its handing of the sectarian violence by supporting an opposition sponsored motion to express anguish at the bloodshed. The coalition lacks a majority in the Upper House.
A BJP official said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will likely intervene in the debate which has gone on for two days. Opposition deputies have accused his party, which also governs Gujarat, of turning a blind eye to the religious killings.
Troops patrolled the old quarter of Ahmedabad on Monday where violence flared up at the weekend. "The city is calm, as violence-hit areas have been brought under curfew," he said.
More than 100,000 people, mainly Muslims, are sheltered in relief camps in Gujarat. Many have lost their homes in arson attacks or are too terrified to return for fear of being targeted by their Hindu neighbors, relief workers say.
"The simple thing is that people of Gujarat want to live in peace, can this government guarantee that," said Shankar Roy Chowdhury, a former chief of the Indian army who is now a member of the Upper House of Parliament.