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India's main opposition - Congress party Thursday submitted a memorandum to country's President Ram Nath Kovind over the deadly communal violence in Delhi that killed 34 people and injured over 200 others.
The Congress delegation was led by Party President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"We decided that we should call on the president and hand over our demands. He very kindly agreed to meet us today," Gandhi told media.
Gandhi read out the points mentioned in the memorandum to the media.
"The central (federal) government and newly elected Delhi government have remained mute spectators as completely mindless rage, designed violence and organized looting of property has continued unabated. Due to the complete inaction on the part of the home minister and the central government, the violence has claimed lives of 34 people and over 200 have been injured," Gandi said.
Death toll in the communal violence Thursday rose to 34. While 32 deaths have been confirmed at hospitals, two bodies were found in a drain in Gagan Vihar-Johripur area.
"We called upon president to suggest to him that what has happened in last four days in Delhi is a matter of great concern and a matter of national shame in which at least 34 people have died and 200 people are injured, it is a reflection on the total failure of central government to control the situation," Manmohan Singh said.
Local media reports said arson and unrest emerged from northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura, Maujpur and Karawal Nagar areas late on Wednesday, hours after country's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited violence-affected areas to offer personal guarantees about the restoration of peace.
Unrelenting communal violence broke out in the northeastern part of the city following which mobs armed with sticks and rods resorted to arson, looting and vandalism.
Reports said many people especially Muslims are leaving their homes in the affected areas and taking shelter in other safer locations.
The clashes broke out between pro-and-anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) groups in the northeastern part of the city on Sunday and took an ugly turn on Monday and Tuesday.
Protests against the controversial new citizenship law triggered on Dec. 11 last year, the day India's upper house of parliament passed the law. Since then there has been no let-up in the protests.
The law aims at granting citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to six religions - Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Parsi and Christianity - from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, it has kept out Muslim immigrants from applying for citizenship.
So far, the violence against the law has killed over 60 people across India.
