NEW DELHI: Voicing concern over deterioration of the communal situation
in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the use of social media and other mode of communication to aggravate such tension is posing a new challenge.
"Increase in communal incidents in the country in the past few months
and the revival of ethnic tensions in the North East in recent weeks
have been particular causes of concern to all of us," he said addressing
the annual DGPs/IGPs conference here.
Singh said ethnic
disturbances of the north-east assumed a national dimension with the
flight of people belonging to the region from various towns of south and
western India.
"This further strained the communal situation in
the country, which was already showing some signs of deterioration,
particularly in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala," he said.
The prime minister
said use of bulk SMSs and social media to aggravate the communal
situation was a new challenge that the recent disturbances have thrown
before the country.
"We need to fully understand how these new
media are used by miscreants. We also need to devise strategies to
counter the propaganda that is carried out by these new means," he said.
Singh, however, cautioned that any measure to control the use of such
media must be carefully weighed against the need for the freedom to
express and communicate. "I am sure that in the coming months our police
forces would be able to work out effective strategies to deal with
these tendencies," he said.
The Prime Minister said ethnic,
religious and cultural diversity in our country is a source of strength
and vitality to India and efforts must be taken to strengthen the thread
of unity running through country's "variegated societal landscape."
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