Narendra Modi calls Communal Violence Bill ‘a recipe for disaster’; shoots off letter to Manmohan Singh

NEW DELHI: The government has defended the revised bill aimed at preventing communal violence, with an official saying that the new draft addressed the key concern of the BJP as it did not make any distinction between the majority community and the minority community.

The earlier draft prepared by the National Advisory Committee (NAC) in 2011 was bitterly opposed by the principal opposition, BJP, on the grounds that it pre-supposed the majority community as the tormentor in a situation of communal riots and the minority community as the sufferer.

It had defined the affected group in the crime as “a religious or linguistic minority in any state”. However, the new draft circulated to all states is neutral in this regard, a senior government official said. The new draft says violence against persons “having a particular religious and linguistic identity” will be termed as communal violence, thereby ensuring that communal violence against any set of persons will be considered a crime. The new draft terms hate propaganda, organised communal violence, financial aid to such violence and mental or physical torture to any person as a crime under the new bill.
The new draft also designates the District Magistrate or the Commissioner of Police in the state as the “competent authority” to declare an area as communally disturbed and subsequently exercise powers and functions assigned to them under the Act to prevent and control the violence. “If the state government is of the opinion that assistance of the central government is required for controlling the communal violence, it may seek the assistance of the central government to deploy armed forces of the Union for such purposes, and the central government shall deploy forces of the Union in the areas notified by the competent authority,” the new draft says. A government official said this could hardly be construed as an infringement of the federal structure since the right to declare the area as communally disturbed and calling for central forces was still with the state.

The government also defended the concept of fixing responsibility for breach of command and dereliction of duty of public servants in communal violence situations, saying that has been done as per National Advisory Council’s suggestions since there have been instances where public servants have turned a blind eye to controlling communal violence situations or acted inadequately by purpose. Such individuals could face a two to five-year jail term under the revised bill.