By PC Hamza,
‘Secular’ Congress has upset the true secularists, minorities and social and human rights activists campaigning for the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2013 by failing to place it in the winter session of the Parliament which ended on 18 December.
The Union cabinet had approved the bill two days earlier and the Central government had given an assurance that the draft bill will be tabled in this session itself.
The Congress-led Central government has already invited harsh reactions and responses from minority groups and activists for diluting the draft bill due to opposition from the right-wing BJP and other organisations. Thus many propositions made in the draft bill approved by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) were missing in the draft approved by the Union cabinet.
It is a fact that the majority of our countrymen want social harmony and communal peace to prevail. It is also a fact that there are fringe elements in our society whose full-time job is to spread communal poison and polarise the society. They get overt and covert political support. Earlier, communal riots had more economic motives and less communal agendas. The post-Babri politically charged atmosphere has given a more political dimension to communal riots. It is also an open secret that many sincere and committed administrative officials find their hands tied due to political interventions.
The need for a comprehensive bill that could prevent communal violence to a great extent was felt by many for long. The Gujarat riots, distinctly different in their manifestation, clinical operations and collusion of higher and highest authorities accelerated the initiatives for such a bill.
From 2005, a draft bill has been pending before the central government and has been gathering dust despite being cleared by a parliamentary standing committee in 2006. Then came the intervention by Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) in the form of a Working Group which came up with a revised draft bill in 2011. The Working Group consisting of eminent activists had done a commendable job in drafting the bill. The recent communal disturbances in and around Muzaffarnagar again strengthened the calls for the implementation of the bill.
The draft bill had some tough sections and clauses. It had defined a riot-hit group as a religious or linguistic minority in the wake of many past experiences and incidents across the country and had proposed a national authority for communal harmony with wide-ranging powers to oversee and monitor action taken by the states to prevent and control communal violence.
As per the draft bill of the NAC, communal violence includes “any act or series of acts, whether spontaneous or planned, resulting in injury or harm to the person and or property, knowingly directed against any person by virtue of his or her religious or linguistic identity”. The draft bill provided authority to the Centre to intervene in communally-disturbed areas if the state failed in preventing riots. This provision has its significance as we had bitter experiences in the past. The Babri Masjid was demolished while the BJP chief minister remained a mute spectator and ensured that the Central army deployed at call distance didn’t make any move before the demolition was complete. In the 2002 Gujarat riots, the police not only failed in containing but even collaborated with the rioters. There was no question at all of asking for Central military assistance as everything happened with the knowledge of higher political heavyweights of Gujarat at the time. This provision has been diluted now due to opposition from some chief ministers of non-Congress-ruled states citing powers of the states in the federal structure. Moreover, in the new bill approved by the Central cabinet, the Central military assistance will be provided once a request is made by the state. Changes have been made in the case of communities also and the new draft proposes to be neutral between communities and there is no onus on the majority community in a riot situation.
Despite all this, protagonists of the bill want it passed even in the present diluted form.
Secular groups, social activists, minority organisations and various political parties barring the right-wing have been campaigning for the bill to be tabled in the winter session of the Parliament. They were taken aback and upset by the news of abrogation of the session without the bill being tabled. Rumours are high that the government made a deal with the BJP for dropping the Communal Violence Bill as a quid pro quo for the BJP’s support in the passage of the Lok Pal Bill.
It was expected by the peace-loving people that the bill will make some positive effects. The provision for setting up an authority at the Centre and states to counter communal disturbances and to foster communal harmony can make positive impacts. If the authority functions seriously, it can use many of its powers to contain disturbances, effect rehabilitation and reparation to the victims without delay, and take legal and disciplinary actions against erring officials.
Under the draft bill, an area can be declared as disturbed for 60 days according to the magnitude of the disturbance. The bill proposes to punish organised communal violence with life imprisonment, hate propaganda with up to three years imprisonment or fine or both, funding of communal violence with three years or fine or both, dereliction of duty with imprisonment ranging from two to five years and breach of command with imprisonment of up to 10 years.
The question remains even if the bill is passed, whether our Central and state governments will exhibit the much needed political and administrative will to introduce and execute it.
Was the Congress serious in the matter when the union cabinet approved the Communal Violence Bill on 16th December and again when it announced that it will be tabled in this session itself? Yes, it is a fact that the sessions of both the houses were continuously disrupted and that the Parliament could productively use only 12 per cent of its total time and that many bills including Telangana couldn’t be tabled.
Given its need and importance, had the Congress leadership willed, it could have at least tabled it. Now, in the absence of convincing and concrete measures, all utterances by Union ministers like convening an imminent session will be counted as another attempt to befool masses.
And what can be the concrete measures? Announce a firm date for convening the session of the Parliament with its procedural and political formalities fulfilled, to table important pending bills with the Communal Violence bill on top. If the government finds it not feasible, then it should bring the bill in the form of an ordinance to show to the world that it is serious. This bill concerns Muslims, all minorities and all those who want to see peace prevail and the communal venom be controlled.
—
PC Hamza is Secretary, Welfare Party of India. He can be contacted at [email protected]
