“It is essential for the Centre to play a proactive role to ensure that the violence is stopped and that appropriate measures are taken. Since many of the area in Kandhmal district are under schedule 5 of the Constitution, the Centre has an added responsibility,” CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, who led a party delegation to the state told reporters.

She along with the delegation had also met the chief minister after the members were disallowed to visit the affected villages where armed cadres of VHP and Bajrang Dal attacked and burnt the churches and properties and killed members of the Christian community in protest against the killing of VHP leader Lakshmananda, whom the state government and police said Maoists had killed.

Karat said the delegation met the chief minister and strongly condemned the utter failure of is government in alliance with the BJP to provide protection to the Christian community. “In particular the delegation expressed its deep concern at the plight of women and children, including nuns who have been targets to attacks along with pastors,” she explained.

Describing the incidents as reign of terror on the most vulnerable sections of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, Karat demanded the state government to take stern action against VHP leader Parveen Togadia and others responsible for inciting violence. The delegation also asked chief minister Naveen Patnaik to snap his ties with the BJP.

“The delegation demanded immediate registration of FIRs taking statements from those in the relief camps. It also demanded immediate relief to those homeless and in the camps and measures to ensure their return to the villages,” Karat informed.

The CPI (M) leader while sharing her interaction with the victims, who have fled from their villages and came to Bhubneswar, Karat said it is clear that for four days following the murder of Swami Lakshmananda reportedly by Maoists their was an utter abdication of governance and the field was left open to the reign of terror unleashed by the Bajrang Dal and VHP on the Christian community in Kandhmal and adjoining districts

The connivance of the government was exemplified by the permission given to Togadia to take out funeral procession of the Swami for 200 kilometers. This deliberate fanning and inflaming the communal hatred against the minority community directly resulted in the violence being planned and executed by these outfits, the CPI (M) Polit Bureau members said. She said a delegation of the Left parties would also visit the areas marred by the communal violence.

“Despite of the shoot at sight orders and the curfew clamped in several districts and the presence of police, the violence against the community continues in many areas showing that the with the BJP in the coalition providing patronage to the carnage, it is command of the RSS frontal organization, which matter,” she charged. (EON).