Leaders of 13 opposition parties condemn hate speeches; seeks punishment for communal violence perpetrators

Leaders of 13 opposition parties, including Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin, on Sunday jointly condemned ongoing attempts at communal polarisation and growing incidents of hate speeches, and sought stringent punishment for perpetrators of communal violence. They asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keeping quiet on such incidents.

"We are extremely anguished at the manner in which issues related to food, dress, faith, festivals and language are being deliberately used by sections of the ruling establishment to polarise our society," they said in a joint statement.

Among the signatories are Hemant Soren, Tejashwi Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Sitaram Kesri, and D Raja.

Leaders of Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Telangana Rashtra Samithi were among the notable absentees from the statement.

Appeasement, vote bank politics had kept nation divided: BJP

"Sonia Gandhi and some Left leaders and Farooq Abdullah have issued a joint appeal that a particular ideology is responsible for flaring communal tension in the country. I want to tell them it is because of the ideology of appeasement and selective community politics that has divided the country for 70 years in the name of vote politics. When violence takes place in Rajasthan these leaders maintain a silence and start politics over other states. People of this country are asking why Sonia Ji is silent over Karauli," BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra.