BJP accuses Bihar police of targeting majority community

Patna: The BJP a partner in the ruling coalition in Bihar has accused the administration of having acted in a partisan manner against members of the majority community in the aftermath of the communal flare-ups in various districts recently. 

A memorandum to this effect was submitted to the Director General of Police KS Dwivedi on Friday by a party delegation comprising state vice-president Devesh Kumar, chief whip in the state Assembly Arun Kumar Sinha, MLA Sanjiv Chaurasia and media in-charge Pankaj Singh. "In the memorandum, it has been stated that in districts like Aurangabad, Nalanda and Samastipur, the majority community resorted to aggression only upon provocative acts by anti-social elements from among the minority community," Pankaj Singh said in a statement.

The BJP delegation further alleged, "in the aftermath of the incidents of violence that took place around Ram Navami, those belonging to the majority community have been arrested in large numbers while the administration has gone soft on the minorities."

The delegation demanded among others release of all innocent people and a high-level enquiry into the alleged partisan approach adopted by the police during such incidents, Singh said.

The state government has drawn flak over the spate of communal clashes witnessed in various parts of the state in the past few weeks. Proceedings of the state Assembly during the budget session, which concluded earlier this week, were stalled by opposition parties like the RJD, the Congress and the CPI(ML) a number of times over the issue of the recent spurt in communal violence.

RJD leaders had also targeted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar charging him with having surrendered before an "aggressive" BJP. The chief minister had expressed displeasure over communal violence on a number of occasions.