RED ALERT – Communal Violence Bill to be “pushed ahead” before elections

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry has decided to push ahead the controversial Communal Violence Bill which aims to check targeted violence against the minorities. The Ministry has submitted their draft of the bill to the Law Ministry for legal vetting.

A government source said there is an urgency now to bring the bill for Cabinet approval and introduce it in Parliament soon in an effort to get it passed in the tenure of UPA-2. This is especially because a draft of the proposed legislation was drawn up by the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) way back on July 25, 2011 and submitted for the Home Ministry’s consideration. The Home Ministry has finally completed its deliberations on the proposed legislation and has submitted their draft bill to the Law Ministry. A source said the Ministry draft “largely sticks” to the provisions in the ‘Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011’ prepared by the NAC. The BJP is dead against the said draft as it aims to protect only the religious or linguistic minorities from violence by a majority group. BJP in the past has in fact called it a “dangerous bill”, saying it will harm federal structure of the Constitution and questioned how the bill could presume that the majority community is always responsible for riots.

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