Centre may ban Sangh Parivar: Moily

A day after advocating stringent law to curb terror attacks, Chairman of Administrative Reform Commission and Congress spokesperson, M Veerappa Moily came with another suggestion pointing out the spurt in communal violence against the minority communities across the country to ban the Sangh Parivar outfits.

Moily, addressing the media persons on Wednesday, said the Centre would not hesitate to ban the Sangh Parivar responsible for increasing attacks on Christians and their institutions, if the law and order situation does not improve in Karnataka.

Critically condemning the mayhem against Christians and attacks on churches, Moily said there was clear evidence of Sangh Parivar's indulgence in attack on churches in Mangalore, Udupi, Chikmagalur and Davanagere and if violence continues the Centre will be left no option except banning these organisations.

However, the appropriate action will be taken after the reports of National Commission for Minorities and National Women's Commission, which are assessing the situation in the violence-hit regions of Karnataka. The report has also been asked from National and State Human Rights Commission.

Accusing the state-BJP government for not taking action against the orchestrated attacks on churches, Moily asked why the state government had not taken action against the Bajrang Dal, which has openly claimed responsibility for attacks.

Meanwhile, Congress has demanded the BJP government in Karnataka to invoke the state's stringent law—the Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act (KCOCA)--against the persons responsible for attacking churches.

"BJP has been talking about restoration of POTA and the central approval of Gujarat's GCOCA. The KCOCA is right here in operation in Karnataka. Why has the government not invoked it against those who attacked churches? How many have been arrested under this Act," Moily said at a press conference here. If KCOCA is properly implemented it can be very effective in curbing organised crimes including communal attacks.

On Tuesday, Moily Commission came out with report titled “Combating Terrorism”--the recommendations made in the report differs sharply from Home Minister Shivraj Patil's repeated statements that the law of the land is enough to tackle terrorism-related cases.

Among other proposals such as new anti-terror law, institutions of federal investigating agency etc., the Moily panel recommended that naxalites should be treated as terrorists too. The panel termed naxalites “Left-wing terrorists” instead of previous saying “Left-wing extremists.” Justifying its point the report says jihadis are motivated by “religious fundamentalism” whereas naxalites follow “ideology oriented terrorism.”