COMMUNAL VIOLENCE BILL

THREAT TO NATIONAL INTEGRATION, SOCIAL HARMONY AND CONSTITUTIONAL FEDERALISM

BACKGROUND

The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005 was introduced in the Parliament in 2005. The so-called civil society groups and Muslim and Christian groups said that the 2005 draft Bill was completely toothless. They demanded that the powers of managing communal violence be vested in non-Govt. actors. The opponents include All India Christian Council and Joint Committee of Muslim Organisations for Empowerment (JCMOE).

 The undersigned call upon the Government to provide for prompt registration of communal crimes, their urgent investigation by special agencies and prosecution of identified culprits, including policemen, administrators and politicians, in Special Courts with Special Prosecutors, who are acceptable to the victims and in such cases the provision of prior sanction of the government should not apply to such culprits. - Statement of Joint Committee of Muslim Organisations for Empowerment (JCMOE) on Communal Violence Bill, 2005 It is very much evident from above that present draft of the Communal Violence Bill-2011 derives inspiration from a statement made by a Committee of Muslim Organizations.

WHAT THEY WANT?

They wanted a Bill that considers only the Christians and Muslims as the generally targeted victims of communal violence. The word communal violence be defined in such a way that only the Muslims and Christians are treated as victims and Hindus as rioters. It should be deemed that the local police and administration, including the State administration, is always hand-in-glove with the perpetrators of violence. The Bill should empower the Central Government to invoke Art.355 and 356 of the Constitution in the event of communal violence.

NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

In this backdrop, new National Advisory Council (NAC) was constituted and Chairman of the NAC Sonia Gandhi asked to draft a new Bill which envisaged into form of a new draft Bill Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill-2011. As per the GO of the NAC the Prime Minister, in consultation with the Chairperson, would appoint the members. That means it is more like the fiefdom of Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Thus it lacks any consensus or democratic mandate. Most of the Members are only known for their antiHindutva moorings or proximity to the Chairperson.

MEMBERS OF DRAFTING & ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Drafting Committee

Advisory Group Members

Abusaleh Shariff Asgar Ali Engineer Gagan Sethi H.S Phoolka John Dayal Justice Hosbet Suresh Kamal Faruqui Manzoor Alam Maulana Niaz Farooqui Ram Puniyani Rooprekha Verma Samar Singh Saumya Uma Shabnam Hashmi Sister Mary Scaria Sukhdeo Thorat Syed Shahabuddin Uma Chakravarty Upendra Baxi

Conveners Harsh Mander & Farah Naqvi Members

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Gopal Subramanium Maja Daruwala Najmi Waziri P.I. Jose Prasad Sirivella Teesta Setalvad Usha Ramanathan (upto 20 Feb 2011) 8. Vrinda Grover (upto 20 Feb 2011)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

COSMETIC CHANGES IN THE ORIGINAL DRAFT

Drafting of a new Prevention of Communal Violence Bill was entrusted to the NAC by the Government. Draft committee was led by Harsh Mander and Farah Naqui and had as advisors like Asgar Ali Engineer, John Dayal, Ram Puniyani, Shabnam Hashmi, Sister Mary Scaria, Manzoor Alam. For most of them the ONLY claim to fame is their anti-Hindu stand. After months-long debate the draft was modified and prepared for presentation to the Parliament. Final draft is now available on the NAC website. However the changes appear to be merely cosmetic and the core thrust of the Bill remains the same. The NAC seems determined to pursue its agenda.

BASELESS HYPOTHESES

The basic premise of the Draft Bill that the Majority community read Hindus are the perpetrators of communal violence in India and the minority read Muslims and Christians are the victims is essentially wrong. Equally wrong is the premise that a particular government or party is good in governance and the other bad. History of India provides enough evidence to suggest that highest number of communal clashes take place in Congress-ruled states and in many instances of communal violence political interests too play a vital role.

at one time or another, Congress politicians have both fomented and prevented communal violence for political advantage. Congress governments have failed, for example, to prevent some of Indias worst riots (e g, the Ahmedabad riots of 1969, the Moradabad riots of 1980, and the Meerut riots of 1987) and in some cases Congress ministers have reportedly instigated riotsand have blocked riot enforcement. - Steven Wilkinson in his book Communal

Riots in India (CUP, 2004) (p. 153)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

There is an Explanatory Note on the draft prepared by the drafting committee outlining the rationale behind bringing such a law. This Explanatory Note speaks volumes about the mindset of the committee.

Lines from Explanatory Note:

The Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011 is intended to enhance State accountability and correct discriminatory exercise of State powers in the context of identity-based violence, and to thus restore equal access to the law for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and religious and linguistic minorities. Existing laws of the land and the machinery of the State are found to work relatively impartially when targeted identity-based offences are committed against dominant groups in a State.

THE BASIC PREMISES OF THE DRAFT BILL

A) There is a non-dominant group in every State in the

form of religious and linguistic minority which is always a victim of violence; B) the dominant majority in the State is always the perpetrator of violence; and C) the State administration is, as a rule, biased against the non-dominant group.

ANOMALIES OF THE DRAFT BILL

A particular religious group can be a non-dominant one at the State level but dominant in several districts. But the Bill is applied only on the basis of State level data. Similarly in a situation of violence between the SC & ST communities and religious minorities like the Muslims and Christians, as is often the case, which act will apply? It is the SC & ST Atrocities Act or the present Communal Violence Act? Similarly no answer when there is a conflict between two minority groups. In a given violence if the dominant group is the victim then the IPC sections would apply whereas if a non-dominant group is the victim then the new Act will be applied is a weird logic. This act would not apply to the state of Jammu & Kashmir where Hindus are in minority.

DEFINITIONS

Communal and targeted violence means and 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 membership of any group. Group means a religious or linguistic minority, in any State in the Union of India, or Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes within the meaning of clauses (24) and (25) of Article 366 of the Constitution of India; Hostile environment against a group means an intimidating or coercive environment that is created when a person belonging to any group as defined under this Act, by virtue of his or her membership of that group, victim means any person belonging to a group as defined under this Act, who has suffered physical, mental, psychological or monetary harm or harm to his or her property as a result of the commission of any offence under this Act, and includes his or her relatives, legal guardian and legal heirs, wherever appropriate;

PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM

Victim can only be belonging to a group as defined under this Act. And the group as defined under this Act is the Minority the non-dominant group. That means this act will consider only the Minority as the victims. And he or she will become a victim if he or she has suffered physical, mental, psychological or monetary harm Now, physical harm is measurable; mental harm is difficult to gauge, but how on earth can anyone define psychological harm? The Bill doesnt define it. Then how can the so-called psychological harm be one of the reasons for victimhood?

KNOWLEDGE IS DANGEROUS!!
Art. 4(a) of the draft bill says Knowledge- A person is said to knowingly direct any act against a person belonging to a group by virtue of such persons membership of that group where: (a) he or she means to engage in the conduct against a person he or she knows belongs to that group; In any given incident the knowledge that the person with whom you are engaging is from the nondominant (read Minority) group compounds your crime according to Art 4 of the draft Bill.

ART. 13 & ART. 14

Both the articles of the draft bill want to make the government officials and the personnel of the security forces accountable for communal violence. While Art 13 defines what constitutes dereliction of duty Art 14 wants to punish the officers of the security agencies including the personnel of the Army in case of their failure to quell violence or prevent it. The language and idiom of the articles suggests that the drafting committee is convinced that as a general case they tend to behave in a biased manner.

SUPERIOR RESPONSIBLE FOR INDIVIDUALS ACT

According to Art 15 of this Bill breach of command responsibility of the superiors is also an offence. What it means is that if a member of an organization is found to be the perpetrator of the so-called communal and targeted violence the higher ups in the organization, even if they are not directly involved in any action, will be held vicariously responsible.

GUILTY UNTIL PROVED OTHERWISE (CHAPTER VI)

Under this draft Bill dictum of natural justice that one is innocent until proved guilty has been turned upside down. Under the provisions of this draft Bill every accused is deemed to be guilty until proved otherwise. And the onus of proving otherwise rests on the accused, not the accuser. Art 56 also states: all offences specified under this Act, shall be cognizable and non-bailable.

PRESUMPTION IS EVIDENCE (ART. 70, 71, 72)

All the three articles conclude that there is no need for any material evidence to be produced by the complainant. Upon receiving a complaint it is presumed that the crime is committed unless the contrary is proved. That means a person from the Minority group may accuse one from the Majority community of committing a crime against him by virtue of his being a member of a Group without producing any material evidence.

NATIONAL AUTHORITY FOR COMMUNAL HARMONY, JUSTICE AND REPARATION

Art 20 states that the Central Government shall constitute a National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparations. This will be a 7-member body out of which 4 members should be from the group meaning the Minority as per this Act. Thus it will be a committee of seven wise men, majority of whom will be from the Minority community. The Seven Wise Men have powers to investigate, summon, interrogate, raid, seize and recommend punitive action. They are the Super Government. Even the State and Central Governments SHALL act on their advisories within a stipulated period. Section V of the draft Bill is about constitution of same kind of body at state level.

WHY SCS/STS CLUBBED WITH MINORITIES?

Prevention of Atrocities on SCs & STs Act is in place since 1989. It has provisions to protect the communities from all forms of violence and atrocities. When such a stringent law is available for the SCs and STs to protect their interests why then should they be included in this new Bill? The only credible answer seems to be that it is a conspiracy to wean away these sections from the rest of the Hindu society. There has all along been a campaign to project the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as victims of Upper Caste Hindu oppression and to co-opt them into the league of the minorities.

OVERTLY COMMUNAL AND PATENTLY ILLEGAL BILL

The Bill clearly discriminates between the Majority and Minority groups. Our Constitution and laws dont permit such blatant discrimination in making laws. In fact while the question of making laws on communal grounds was settled long ago during the debates in the Constituent Assembly itself the Courts in the country too have affirmed the legal position in such matters very clearly. In a landmark judgment in 1960 the Supreme Court too had made it clear that laws cant be made on discriminatory grounds.

LANDMARK JUDGMENT OF SUPREME COURT (1960)

Government of Rajasthan vs Thakur Pratap Singh Case Supreme Court had categorically stated that no Government could make laws that exclude certain groups based on religious and communal identity. This case arose for consideration the constitutional validity of one paragraph of a notification issued by the State of Rajasthan under s. 15 of the Police Act, 1861 (V of 1861), under which " the Harijan " and "Muslim" inhabitants of the villages, in which an additional police force was stationed, were exempted from the obligation to bear any portion of the cost of that force.

THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT (1960)

" Now this is a very strange argument that only persons of a certain community or caste were lawabiding citizens, while the members of other communities were not. Disturbing elements may be found among members of any community or religion just as much as there may be saner elements among members of that community or religion.

THREAT TO DEMOCRACY AND FEDERALISM

We have to decide whether the country should be run by representatives and officials who are elected or selected through a constitutionally sanctioned process or Seven Wise men who drop down from nowhere to control the entire governance. This Bill purports: from Democracy to Elitocracy where any formal qualification of Member of the Authority is not defined. In the Federal system State Governments enjoy certain exclusive powers. That includes law and order responsibilities also. Maintenance of law and order is a State Subject. There has been a sinister and sustained effort by the present Government to undermine this Federal obligation decreed by the Constitution.

RETURN OF THE JINNAHISM

The present draft Bill is a standing proof that Jinnahism the belief that the Minority is perpetually oppressed in India by the Majority is still alive and kicking. We have not learnt any lessons from history. And we continue to commit blunders. This draft Bill, if passed into becoming an Act, would be another big blunder we would be committing.

THIS BILL DOESNT DESERVE TO BE PLACED BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT. IT SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN BY THE NAC FORTHWITH.

Thanks