From
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/12/06/communal-violence-bill-is-foolish-dangerous-165635.html
Communal Violence Bill is foolish, dangerous
by
Rohini Shah
6 Dec 2013
UPA is all set to table the controversial Communal Violence Bill in the Winter Session of Parliament. The Opposition has amplified its objections to the Bill, with Narendra Modi even shooting a letter to the PM calling the bill "ill-conceived, poorly drafted and a recipe for disaster". As the debate over it heats up, let us examine some key facts about the Bill.
Who drafted the Bill?
One might assume that the bill would be drafted by the Central Home Ministry and Law Ministry, vetted by concerned bureaucrats, and examined by the Cabinet. But in the UPA, the role of Cabinet Ministers is quite limited. All policy-drafting and formulation is done by a bunch of activists grouped under an extra-Constitutional authority called the National Advisory Council (NAC). This group claims to represent civil society, but there is no definition on what is civil society. It has no Constitutional provision or political mandate.
If you look at the members of the drafting committee of this Bill, there will be no doubts left about its intentions and agenda. Prominent members of the committee include Harsh Mander, Farah Naqvi, Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Kamal Farooqi, Vrinda Grover, Ram Puniyani and many more. Most of them are shadow Congress loyalists or pseudo-secularists hiding under the facade of activism. What else can you expect from them except a thoroughly biased and communal legislation? How did these individuals with dubious track record get the authority to draft such important piece of policy? NAC itself is a big sham, and any Prime Minister with even slightest degree of self respect would not have tolerated such blatant encroachment on executive powers.
Devil in the details
The entire draft of the Bill is available at the NAC website here. The poison starts with definition of three important terms.
Chapter 1, section 3(e) defines "group" as religious or linguistic minority, in any State in the Union of India, or Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes as defined by the Constitution of India.
Chapter 1, section 3(f) defines "hostile environment against a group" and specifies certain scenarios which would lead to crime against a group defined above.
Chapter 1, section 3(k) defines "victim" as any person belonging to a group as defined above, who has suffered physical, mental, psychological or monetary harm or harm to his property as a result of commission of any offence under this Act, and includes his or her relatives, legal guardian and legal heirs, whenever appropriate.
So, the victim can only belong to a "group" as defined under this Act, and the group defined under this Act is a religious/linguistic minority. This basic definition itself falsely assumes that religious/linguistic minority in any State is always a victim, and that the dominant majority is always the perpetrator of violence. Here lies the real danger behind the Bill.
Second, it considers group as a minority based on population at a State level. But in a riot situation, it is demographics at city/area level that matter the most. For example, even though Muslims are numerically a minority in Maharashtra, if riots break out in Muslim-majority areas like Bhiwandi, Bheendi Bazaar, or Malegaon, Hindus will be at the receiving end.
Third, the arithmetic itself is flawed. In many States, if the religious and linguistic minorities and SC/ST communities are taken together they form the majority and rest the minority. Should we then consider Hindus as aggressors just because they are in majority? What if there is violence between SC/STs and religious minorities like Muslims and Christians, as is mostly the case – Should SC & ST Atrocities Act be used, or the new Communal Violence Bill?
Consider this:
Case 1: While driving a car, you collide with somebody coming from the opposite side. In a minor quarrel, if the other person happens to be a member of minority community, he can get you booked for causing 'psychological harm' under section 3(k).
Case 2: An owner asks the tenant to immediately vacate the flat for whatever reasons – for example, he may have misbehaved with society members, damaged the property, taken drugs, etc. If the tenant belongs to a minority community, he can get the owner booked under Section 3(f)(iv).
Under the cloak of bringing responsibility and accountability, the draft assumes that everybody except the minority is a culprit. Section 13, 14 and 15 punishes the officials of security agencies including the Army personnel, and higher ups in any organisation in case of failure to quell violence. The draft automatically supposes that they are always guilty and always act in a biased manner.
Another power centre, more NREGA for secular souls
We already have plenty of institutions and commissions who step in when there is any sort of violence or injustice against any individual or community – National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Women (NCW), National Commission for Minorities (NCM), National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, many more. To this list, add hundreds of such commissions created by respective State Governments.
But the drafters are not happy. Chapter 4, Section 20 states that the Central Government shall constitute a National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparations – a 7-member body with 4 members from minority group. Not only that, a next tier of exactly identical body will be created in all States. The powers arrogated to this group would put the Supreme Court of India to shame. This Kangaroo court can:
• Observe, monitor and review performance of public servants.
• Solicit absolutely any information from Centre and State Governments.
• Have powers of a civil court trying a suit under Code of Civil procedure.
• Enter any building and confiscate any material.
• Summon and enforce attendance of any person and examine him.
• Recommend any government on prosecution of any public servant.
• Central and State Government will have to compulsorily act on its advisories in a time bound manner.
In a nutshell, this Super Government and superlative court can investigate, summon, interrogate, raid, seize and recommend punitive action. Why do we have judiciary, police and Government then?
When somebody is given such brutal and overwhelming powers, you would expect that the criteria for selecting that candidate would also be strict, objective, transparent and unambiguous. But the eligibility criterion applied here is absurd and ridiculously silly. The necessary qualifications are:
• Experience in law, justice, human rights, sociology or related social science.
• Record of promoting communal harmony.
• High moral character and integrity.
Even to apply for a call centre job, you need to fulfill some basic eligibility like minimum bachelors/diploma degree, at least 50 per cent in SSC, etc. But this all-powerful body will be selected based on some stupid integrity-morality-meter! Even more, under Section 54 of the draft, they can appoint individuals or NGOs as 'Defenders of Human Rights' to assist State authorities in discharging their duties.
Can you join the dots? These activists and NGOs will create a commission which will in turn have the power to appoint any NGO for additional help. Even if UPA loses in 2014, they have ensured that their NREGA continues. If this Bill is passed, you will certainly see Setalvads and Shabnams become members of such commission, installing their cronies in various States, travelling business class and addressing seminars on communalism, staying in cosy confines in Lutyen's Delhi – all with taxpayers' money. This is a group that has built its entire career upon the singular qualification of abusing Modi. If the 2002 post-Godhra riots had not happened, they would all be dying of starvation.
Danger to federalism
The Constitution of India has maintained that law & order is a State subject. The Communal Violence Bill is a deliberate contravention of this structure through installation of a virtual super authority. Under Section 13/14, they can arrest collectors, district magistrates, secretaries, police officials, even Brigadiers or Colonels. All powers of the State judiciary, police and executive have been taken away and given to a coterie of self-appointed activists. If this Bill becomes a law, it would be child's play for any party at the Centre to create volatile situation in a State governed by Opposition party. Not just Modi, many non-BJP CMs including Mamata Bannerjee, Nitish Kumar, Jayalalitha have raised serious objections to the Bill.
Communal Violence Bill in its current form goes against the very tenets of the Constitution. This undemocratic and fascist Bill is a threat to national integration, social harmony and Constitutional federalism. It symbolises the dirtiest kind of vote-bank politics being played out in the run-up to the 2014 general election. Forget about being tabled in the Parliament, this Bill doesn't even deserve a debate and should be scrapped immediately.
Related articles:
Communal Violence Bill is communal
People must rise against Communal Violence Bill.
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