INDIA: India's parliament adjourned for the sixth consecutive time yesterday after the federal coalition led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) refused opposition demands for a censure motion over the continuing seven-week pogrom of Muslims in western Gujarat state.
Twenty-one people died in rioting and police shooting over the weekend in Gujarat, where about 800 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed in non-stop sectarian clashes in revenge for setting alight a trainload of 59 extremist Hindus on February 27th. The Hindus were returning from the northern town of Ayodhya, where the extremist World Hindu Council, closely aligned to the BJP, has been leading a campaign to build a temple to the warrior god Ram on the site of a 16th century mosque they demolished a decade ago.
The mosque's destruction led to nation-wide Hindu-Muslim clashes lasting over two months in which some 2,000 people died.
Officials said rioting Hindu and Muslim mobs hurled acid-filled light bulbs and crudely fashioned bombs at each other on Sunday night across Gujarat's largest city, Ahmedabad, forcing the police to open fire and the army and paramilitary personnel to patrol the city.
Curfew has been imposed in Ahmedabad's walled city where, over several weeks, rampaging Hindu mobs have set Muslims alight, burnt their homes and looted their businesses.
More than 10,000 Muslims continue to live in inhuman conditions in cramped refugee camps, too terrified to return home for fear of being attacked again.
Besides the Opposition, the National Human Rights, the media and scores of non-governmental organisations have accused Gujarat's BJP government, led by the Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, of conniving with Hindu mobs.
Yesterday, the World Hindu Council talked chillingly of a "final settlement" of the Muslim problem that had frightening echoes of ethnic cleansing campaigns in other parts of the world.
"Now is the time for direct action to assert the Hindu identity - in word and deed," Dr Pravin Togadiya, the council's international general secretary, said.
The Muslims have to be taught a lesson, Dr Togadiya, a cancer surgeon, told the Hindustan Times.
Muslims constitute 12 per cent of India's population of over one billion and Hindus over 80 per cent.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, who dismissed all allegations of any wrongdoing by Mr Modi, is finding himself increasingly beleaguered, with his coalition partners distancing themselves from the BJP over the Gujarat issue.
Mr Vajpayee offended his supporters recently by changing his tone from the anguished one he adopted on a visit to Gujarat accusing Muslims of fuelling sectarian unrest.
"Muslims don't want to live in harmony," he told a public rally.