Assertion: On 7 May 2013, Mr. RPN Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs tabled a report in Parliament about the number of casualties in communal riots in all states in India. The report gives the casualty figures for the period 2010–March 2013. According to the report, the number for Assam in 2012 is ZERO.
Facts
The 2012 communal violence in Assam is perhaps the worst in a state whose demographics have undergone a drastic change thanks largely to illegal Muslim infiltration from Bangladesh. The violence that began around 20 July 2012 claimed 90 lives and displaced over 400,000 people by 31 August 2012 according to this report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights. Almost every major and minor media outlet gave extensive coverage to the issue.
Indeed, Mr. RPN Singh’s own Government sent in the military to contain the violence and restore order in the region. One therefore wonders how exactly he derived ZERO as the number of casualties in the Assam 2012 riots.
Verdict
Is there still any doubt that Mr. RPN Singh was openly bluffing on the floor of the Parliament? His report is absolutely, patently, thoroughly false.
Sandeep Balakrishna is a columnist and author of Tipu Sultan: the Tyrant of Mysore. He has translated S.L. Bhyrappa’s “Aavarana: the Veil” from Kannada to English.
R Prasad
If Hindu lives = Nothing, then RPN Singh is correct, Zero dead in Assam Communal Riots. In fact, nobody is dead in all Communal Riots under Congress rule. People die only in BJP rules states and more people will die in Gujarat. Because SECULARISM protects all people in Congress ruled states, but COMMUNALISM kills everybody in BJP ruled stated.
Ravi S
Mr. Singh had perhaps sourced the news from NDTV!. I admire the audacity of these people when they lie about things that are already in the public domain.
yp
his context shud be understood, he meant zero non-hindu deaths, since khanchris doesnt count hindus as human even though he himself is or may be just by name
Amit
Nice start….Question is,how civilians can challenge lies peddled in Parliament, currently these morons are protected by law. Good you started exposing them.
Siva
His wife tells panelists to defend congress. This man kickstarts campaign., lies in parliament, threatens the people in custody to tell RSS is involved in Ajmer blasts. It is a shame we have someone like this as minister in Onion ooops union cabinet.
ganesh
Can a investigation be launched by the new government in 2014 on such false reports by previous govts.
Once NDA comes to power, two things need to be done for Assam : Contain border infiltration and then action upon such idiots through investigation with a fixed time approach.