The recent communal violence in Indore rocked the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Thursday with the Opposition holding RSS and other Hindu organisations responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation in the town. Raising slogans against the RSS, the Opposition members rushed to the well of the House. The Opposition began the debate on the calling attention motion demanding to know why CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was not present in the House, and why he hadn’t visited Indore despite the violence. Later, the Opposition turned the heat on the state government for allegedly sheltering Hindu organisations and avoiding action against their members who were disregarding the rule of law. Responding to the Congress’ allegation that he was following in the footsteps of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, Chouhan replied: “I am not trying to become either Chhota Modi or Bada Modi, I want to remain Shivraj Singh Chouhan.” Angered by Congress’ accusations that Indore MLA Laxman Gaud had a hand in fomenting communal tension in the town, Gaud, accompanied by ministers and ruling party MLAs, took on the Opposition today, forcing Speaker Ishwardas Rohani to intervene. Rohani asked Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra to keep the ministers and treasury benches under check, and himself warned Gaud and BJP MLA Usha Thakur to behave. Congress MLA Arif Vakil, meanwhile, alleged that part of the trouble in Indore was due to the feud between two BJP factions, one of them led by PWD Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. The Opposition later staged a walkout saying the government was doing little to instill confidence among the public and accused the ruling party of shielding the real accused. “Had action been taken against persons responsible for skirmishes in the last two years,” Vakil argued, “the recent spell of violence could have been avoided.” However, Minister of State for Home Nagendra Singh had a different version of the incidents in Indore on March 11 and 12. Singh said it was not proper to blame the gherao of a police station on any particular organisation. According to him, people angered by the search operations had raised slogans against the administration and pelted the police station with stones.
