Intolerance debate in Parliament: PM Modi to respond today

Reports said Modi is likely to speak around 2 pm.

As the Lok Sabha sat for the day it witnessed uproar during the debate for the second straight day after Monday's repeated disruptions over an accusation made by CPI(M) member Md Salim against Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

On Tuesday, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said the  number of incidents of communal violence has considerably gone down under NDA. "In 2015, there have been 4 communal incidents till October. I do not want to talk of the details of all the communal incidents under UPA," he said.

"It is not  a fair thing to say that communal incidents have increased in regions where there is a majority of BJP's presence. Security is an issue that has to be taken care of by both the State and the Centre," Rijju said.

Earlier, at a  meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Party,  BJP lawmakers were  asked  not to make provocative statements as they divert attention from PM Modi's development agenda.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister  Venkaiah Naidu asked lawmakers not to speak out of turn and make provocative statements as the opposition seized these to make an issue.

On Monday, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Naidu conceded that there was "some intolerance in society" that needed to be identified and dealt with firmly. "Instead of that, we are making it generalized," he said.

In the Lok Sabha, there were repeated adjournments after Left parliamentarian Mohd Salim accused the Home Minister of saying, after Narendra Modi and BJP's election victory last year, that India had the first "Hindu ruler after 800 years."

Rajnath Singh denied the quote attributed to him by the newsmagazine Outlook and demanded an apology. "I have never been hurt as much as I have been today in my entire Parliamentary career," he said.

After repeated disruptions, the debate resumed when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said  Salim's remarks would be deleted from the records. The Outlook magazine later apologised saying the quote had been "erroneously attributed" to the Home Minister when in fact, it was said by Vishva Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal, who died last month.

The Congress party's KC Venugopal accused the government of "politics of communalism" and using Hinduism for political interests. "People expressing their views are being killed. People are killed for eating what they want. People are getting threatening letters for voicing differences," he said.

Incidents like the killing of rationalists, mob attacks over cow slaughter and beef-eating rumours and controversial pronouncements by members of the BJP or groups linked to it have been held up by opposition parties as examples of growing intolerance under the current regime.