BOMBAY: There is “now a plan worked out by the RSS, Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha to spread the communal scourge throughout the country in the name of the dead college girl of Jabalpur”. The weekly news magazine Current said yesterday in a front page article: “… officials, who have probed the allegation that Pakistan agents instigated the riots, found no evidence to justify this communal canard”.

The paper blamed the MP government, particularly the police, for the spread of the rioting. The Jabalpur police force appears to be affected by communal propaganda, it said. The press relations office of the state government also miserably failed to carry out its duties. They did not contradict false rumours.The officials responsible for issuing the press-note “describing clashes on the night of Feb 7 in an irresponsible manner should be severely punished”, the paper added. It quoted the father of the girl who committed suicide, a poor school teacher, as saying that “the dying declaration of the girl had not referred to rape nor were any names mentioned by her”.

“Had the postmortem report been published or produced in court, a great deal of tension caused by it could have been avoided. The people have established that at least one of the boys arrested in the case was friendly with the Bharagava family and was a casual visitor to the house,” the weekly said.

“There is no doubt that the communal organisations exaggerated out of all proportions the episode and gave it a definite communal slant,” it said.

The local Police acted indiscreetly in withdrawing curfew restrictions between Feb 5 and 7, the weekly said, adding that Jabalpur is notorious for communal clashes since 1956. There have been four communal riots here with a population of less than five lakhs.

Science cessRAWALPINDI: The government has accepted in principle recommendations of the Scientific Commission under which the Ministry of Industries will levy a ‘science cess’ on all industrial products. This was announced here yesterday by Industries Minister A.K. Khan while addressing a news conference. The revenues realised through the levy of the cess will be used for financing industrial research.