Trinamool, NDA oppose communal violence bill
Saturday September 10, 2011 05:58:20 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: The central
government Saturday faced strong criticism over its communal
violence bill, with the Trinamool Congress joining the BJP, the
AIADMK and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in expressing
reservations and chief ministers of the National Democratic
Alliance (NDA)-ruled states terming the draft legislation
"dangerous".
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was taken by
surprise at the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting chaired
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here, where the draft legislation
came up for discussion.
The proposed law seeks to hold state government functionaries
responsible for communal violence and attacks on minorities and
paves way for the central government to intervene during communal
flare-ups.
Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi told
reporters that West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, who
represented the state at the NIC meeting, opposed the provisions
of the bill.
Trivedi, however, did not give the details of the provisions to
which his party, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,
is opposed.
If that was not surprise enough, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati, who heads the BSP, accused the government of not giving
state governments a draft of the proposed legislation. She, in
fact, stayed away from the NIC meeting.
"It is important to tell that the centre has not sent the proposed
communal violence bill to the state government. Hence it is not
the opportune moment to comment on the bill," Mayawati said in a
written speech read out on her behalf at the meeting.
The draft bill, prepared by the National Advisory Council headed
by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, seeks to protect "groups" from
communal violence and harm, describing "religious and linguistic
minority, in any state in the Union of India, or Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes" as victims.
The BJP's Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, the leaders of
opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha respectively, too
expressed their opposition to the bill.
The BJP has alleged that the bill was prepared with the "Gujarat
experience" as the subtext. It has rejected the draft bill, saying
it is based on the "presumption that communal trouble is created
only by members of the majority community and never by a member of
the minority community".
BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh's Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan
contended that the bill may encourage intolerance and harm
federalism. "The bill expresses feeling of mistrust in the state
government machinery and lacks clarity in defining crimes for
organised communal violence," Chouhan said at the meeting.
His party colleague and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh
also said the draft bill will harm the federal structure of the
country.
"The proposed bill has many structural loopholes. The biggest
problem is that this bill is against India's federal structure.
The national authority set up with the help of this bill will have
the power to issue directions to any state authority for any
investigation," he said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi too kept away from the NIC
meeting, to register his opposition to the communal violence bill
and to state Governor Kamla Beniwal appointing the Lokayukta
without consulting his government.
The BJP's ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) too is against the
communal violence bill. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal
of SAD, whose speech was read out in his absence at the NIC
meeting, said: "A reality check is required for the bill on
communal violence bill, which the government of India is seeking
to bring in. The bill can lead to avoidable confrontation between
the centre and the states."
Tamil Nadu's ruling party AIADMK, led by Chief Minister J.
Jayalalithaa, too has opposed the bill, claiming it infringed upon
the state's powers and was against the spirit of the federal
structure of India's Constitution.
Tamil Nadu went unrepresented at the NIC meeting, as the state
assembly is in session.
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