Government forced to re-do riots bill

Mtoday news/ DHNS

New Delhi, Sept 10: The National Integration Council (NIC) meeting on Saturday witnessed strong resistance to the official draft legislation proposed to check communal violence, pushing the government to re-work the bill before it is introduced in Parliament.

 The Communal and Targeted Violence (Justice and Reparation) draft bill caused a wide split in the NIC, with the Trinamul Congress, a UPA ally, and the main Opposition BJP joining hands to oppose the piece of legislation crafted in the National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The draft bill has imprints of the civil society represented by likes of RTI activist Aruna Roy.

 

Dismissing the draft bill, the BJP said it was not “secular” and divided the citizens into “minority and majority”. The Congress and its other allies backed the bill as prepared by the NAC.

Along with the Congress, the Left parties are favouring a strong communal violence bill. The BSP is, however, yet to articulate its stand on the issue as it “is yet to receive a copy of the draft”.

Most of the states opposing the draft bill suspect that it would impact their autonomy. They said it may increase communal divide rather than bridging it.

The Trinamul Congress, represented in the NIC by west Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, opposed the bill “in its current form”. Mitra did not elaborate on the key changes his party wanted in it before it could be brought  before the Parliament.

The draft bill defines riots as “that which destroys nation’s secular fabric”, and seeks to protect religious minorities, Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes during communal violence.

The bill also gives the Centre overriding power to intervene in riot-affected states and proposes to create authorities at Centre as well as the state level to cope with riots. It proposes witness protection during investigation and trial.

Some of the main objectives of the 147-member NIC include combating communalism, cas­teism, regionalism, linguism and parochialism. The NIC, reconstituted in April, is meeting after 2008. Presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the meeting sized up the security situation in the count­ry following Wednesday’s bo­mb blasts in the national capital.

The BJP disagreed with “the very concept of the bill.” Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the criter­ion of majority and minority is not clear as there are regions in the country where different communities – Sikhs, Muslims and Christians are in majority.

“We have opposed the Communal Violence bill. This bill is dangerous. It does not look at an individual as a citizen of the country, rather it looks at th­em as a member of a minority or majority community. The bill also takes away the law and order privilege from the state government and brings it under the purview of the Central Government,” said Swaraj. The Biju-Janata Dal too objected to the bill.

Karnataka Chief Minister Sadanand Gowda and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, both belongi­ng to the BJP, also spoke ag­ainst the bill, arguing that it was ag­ainst the concept of state autonomy.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said that the bill will divide people on basis of religion. “The Communal Violence Bill violates the Constitution and is anti-federal. The bill will lead to disintegration and it’s a non secular draft. It denies equality of citizenship by dividing people on basis of religion,” said Jaitley.