We keep raising communal hate in India's poll campaign rhetoric: US
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New Delhi: The United States government continues to raise with India the issue of spreading communal hate along the election campaign rhetoric there, the chief American diplomat in India said on Friday, NDTV reported.
The Charge d' Affaires, Elizabeth Jones, said that they talk of this perpetually along with discussing both easy and difficult issues. The discussions were going on for a long time, and they will continue, Jones said.
Amid the poll campaigns in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, campaign addresses have taken a dirty turn after BJP leaders made communally charged statements. Union Home Minister Amit Shah made curious remarks on the 2002 riots in the state and Muslims.
"There was no room for development in Gujarat because of chaos. In 2002, they tried to indulge in communal violence... we taught them such a lesson, we put them in jail," NDTV quoted Shah.
Though Shah did not name any community, his statements implied none another than the Muslim community, who were the most affected in the 2002 riots and Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of the state then.
Further, the CM of the BJP-led Assam government, Himanta Biswa Sarma, was audacious enough to state that Hindus are peace lovers and do not contribute to riots, implying that sole responsibility for the riots rests in the hands of another particular community. He added to that that Hindus do not believe in 'jihad', but it is a reality, which was evident from the Sraddha Walkar murder case in Delhi.
Elizabeth Jones later talked about the India-US military exercises in Uttarakhand's Auli, to which China made objections. She reiterated India's response to China that it is none of China's business.
Indian External Affairs Ministry had reacted to Chinese objections that it will perform exercises with whomsoever it chooses and it does not give a veto to third countries.