Click to play videoNew Delhi: The National Integration Council (NIC) meeting will take place on Monday in New Delhi where the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi want the issue terrorism on the agenda.
However, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) wants to discuss another issue - religious fundamentalism.
So NIC is likely to turn out to be the latest battleground for the war of words on terrorism and communal violence and both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-NDA and the Congress-led UPA are already sharpening their knives.
The BJP has been charging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of being soft on terror.
Now just hours before the NIC meets to evolve a strategy on dealing with communal violence, the debate is whether terrorism should be included in the agenda or not.
Led by Modi, BJP Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan shot of letters to the Prime Minister asking that terrorism should be on the agenda.
But what the UPA wants to look at is extremism which includes fundamentalism of both kinds - Islamic as well as Hindu.
"Terrorism today if the biggest threat to national integration. Why are you cagey about discussing it," BJP Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Now to counter Modi's charge that terrorism doesn't figure at the meeting, the UPA says it is going to focus on communal terrorism which has rocked NDA ruled states in the recent months.
"The issue of communalism and those behind spreading it in the country like the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad will be discussed. The Opposition is raising the issue to terrorism to divert attention from communalism," Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Steel and Lok Jan Shakti Party supremo, said.
Meanwhile, activists are debating the government's overall attitude in dealing with any form of extremism.
A people's tribunal at Jamia has been asking questions not just about the authenticity of the September 19 encounter, but also of the government's response to the minority-majority divide.
"The post-mortem reports of MC Sharma (Delhi Police Special Cell officer killed during the encounter) and others killed in the encounter should be made public," Booker Prize winner and social activist Arundhati Roy demanded.
So when the NIC meet kicks off, there will be ammunition for both sides to hit out at each other.
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