Communal Violence Bill biased against majority community: Gowda

www.mangaloretoday.com

Bangalore, Sept.10, 2011: Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda Saturday opposed the communal violence bill saying it was biased against the majority community.

‘I have no hesitation to say that the proposed bill is one-sided and clearly biased against the majority community,’ Gowda, Bharatiya Janata Party’s second chief minister in the state, told a meeting of the National Integration Council here.

He faulted the proposed legislation on many counts and warned that if enacted it could ‘lead to irreparable polarisation of the society’.

‘It appears that the offences committed by the members of the majority community against members of the minority community are punishable whereas identical offences committed by the minority groups against the majority are treated much more lightly,’ Gowda said.

‘The bill presumes that no member of the majority community can be a victim and that minority groups are always the victims.’

‘Such presumptions are highly erroneous and if institutionalised in the form of a law could lead to irreparable polarisation of the society. The proposed bill could in fact do more harm to communal harmony than serve as a deterrent to communal violence,’ he said.

Gowda said the proposed bill also went against the country’s federal structure.

‘In fact the very idea of having a central legislation to tackle a state subject itself goes against the very spirit of our constitution,’ he said.

‘A central legislation would not only infringe on the powers of the state governments but also could lead to being politically misused by the central government,’ Gowda said.

He said many of the provisions of the proposed bill were also not workable and suggested ‘serious consultations with the state governments as well as the public at large’ to overcome the ‘deficiencies’.