India plans law on communal unrest

Gujarat has left a long-lasting scar

The Indian government says it is planning to introduce a new law to protect religious minorities.

Interior minister Shivraj Patil told reporters the law would combat communal violence - and would target those who instigated, abetted or funded unrest.

"We will definitely not tolerate it," PTI news agency quoted him as saying.

The move comes in the wake of riots that broke out in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, in which more than 1,000 people died, most of them Muslim.

The idea of new legislation to deal with communal violence was first mentioned by President Abdul Kalam, when he addressed the new Indian parliament following national elections in April and May.

The government would discuss the law with legal and constitutional experts to give it a final shape, Mr Patil told the Press Trust of India (PTI), in the Indian capital, Delhi.

The proposed law would also spell out the role of the federal government and the states in addressing unrest.

"It will be a law which will really deal with communal violence," the minister said.

Carnage

The Gujarat carnage was the worst sectarian violence India had seen in years.

In February 2002, a Muslim mob attacked a train carrying Hindu pilgrims near the town of Godhra in Gujarat state. Nearly 60 Hindus were burnt alive.

In retaliation, mobs of Hindus attacked members of the Muslim minority across Gujarat state in the following weeks. Some estimates put the death toll at 2,000.

Hindus torched Muslim homes and businesses

There were allegations that the attacks on the minority community were carefully-orchestrated - and that members of the state's government, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), played a key role in the rioting.

Similar accusations were made against other Hindu nationalist organisations.

These claims have all been strenuously denied by the BJP and its associated groups.

The party has pledged to stick to its hardline Hindu stance, despite shock defeat in the general elections.

Party president Venkaiah Naidu said there was no question of the BJP ditching its ideology, and blamed May's defeat on complacency.