BJP MPs fear communal riots in U.P.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 21. Members of Parliament belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party today expressed the fear that some Opposition parties might be planning to instigate communal riots in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Assembly elections to consolidate the minority votes. They also charged that some `madrasas,' especially those located along the India-Nepal border, were being used by agents of Pakistan's ISI as `addas' (bases) for terrorist activities.

They were expressing their view at the weekly parliamentary party meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and attended by the Union Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani.

Later, the party spokesperson, Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters that there was no contradiction between the views of party MPs and what Mr. Vajpayee had told a group of Muslims at his residence some 10 days ago. ``Mr. Vajpayee had not given a clean chit to all `madrasas'; all that he had said then was that not all `madrasas' harboured ISI agents and that it would be wrong to brand all of them as centres for anti-national activity.''

The MPs wanted the Centre and the State Government be warned and some action taken before such activities led to any major incident.

The Christian missionaries once again came under attack from the MPs, who alleged that they were involved in insurgents active in the northeast. This should also be looked at by the Centre, they said, but apparently neither Mr. Vajpayee nor Mr. Advani reacted, preferring to listen silently. The need for early delimitation in the States going to the polls in the next one year and the compressed natural gas (CNG) and demolition issues affecting Delhi were among the other issues raised by the MPs. They wanted the imbalances that had crept in as a result of the disproportionate growth of population in some constituencies compared to others to be rectified by drawing afresh the boundaries of both the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies. Mr. Advani reportedly assured the MPs that a bill to set up a delimitation commission would be brought before Parliament soon.

And on the CNG and demolition issues, they wanted a meeting be called where the Urban Development Minister, Mr. Jagmohan, the Law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitely, and the Petroleum Minister, Mr. Ram Naik, could interact with Delhi MPs to clarify issues that have been exercising the people and the MPs. This was agreed, and a meeting is to be called soon.

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