The Centre on Wednesday passed a new Criminal Bill in the Lok Sabha, introducing provisions for the death penalty for those committing the crime of mob lynching. While announcing the punishment for mob lynching, Home Minister Amit Shah questioned the previous Congress governments, asking why they had not included mob lynching in the laws during their 58 years of ruling the country.
“You used the term mob lynching to criticise us (BJP), but then you forgot about it once you came into power,” the Home Minister said in his response to the members, including the Opposition, during the discussion on The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The Lok Sabha passed three key Bills to overhaul the criminal justice system, with Home Minister Amit Shah asserting that the focus is on delivering speedy justice rather than merely handing down punishment.
The Bills were initially introduced during the Monsoon Session of Parliament in August. After the standing committee on home affairs made several recommendations, the government decided to withdraw the Bills and introduced their redrafted versions last week.
While The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita will replace the Indian Penal Code of 1860, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita will replace the CrPC of 1973, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill will replace the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.
Shah criticised the Congress and responded to a question once asked by former Home Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram. “Once I was listening to Chidambaram’s speech. He had said it is a test for the home minister that if he brings a new law, then what will he do with (the issue) of mob lynching?”
Responding to this in the lower House, Shah stated that Chidambaram has neither understood the BJP nor its principles. “Our party has only one ideology, and that is the development of the nation,” Shah said.
Continuing his attack on the Opposition, Amit Shah took a dig at “those who said the BJP doesn’t understand.”
“I told them if ones heart is Indian, you will understand the laws. If it is Italian, you won’t,” the Home Minister quipped.
The Union Home Minister’s statement came as 143 MPs, including 97 from the lower house, have been suspended from Parliament during the last four days of sitting in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session as they insisted on a statement from the Home Minister over the Parliament breach incident last week.
Replying to the debate, Shah said the three Bills also have a clear definition of terrorism and scrap sedition as a crime while introducing a new section titled “offences against the State.”
Members of Congress, DMK, TMC, and other Opposition parties were not present during the debate. While many Opposition parties have been critical of the Bills that seek to replace IPC, CrPC, and Evidence Act, only a handful of non-NDA members, including Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, MPs of the Biju Janata Dal, and Bahujan Samaj, were present in the House.
“I am astonished at how some people defend and save the lives of terrorists in the name of ‘human rights.’ Remember, this is neither the rule of the Britishers nor of Congress. This is Modi’s rule. No arguments to save terrorists will be entertained here,” Shah said, adding that the Modi Government has explicitly brought ‘terrorism’ under the purview of the criminal justice system.
“We have changed the definition of Sedition from ‘Rajdroh’ (offences against the government) to ‘Deshdroh’ (offences against the Nation),” he said, noting that IPC Section 124, or the Sedition Law, has been repealed.
“The purpose of the new law is not to save the government but to save the country. In a healthy democracy, everyone has the right to criticise the government, but we will not allow anyone to say anything demeaning about India,” Shah said.
“The sedition law, made by the British, under which Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel... Many of our freedom fighters remained in jail for years, and that law continues till date. When they were in opposition, they used to protest, but when they came to power, they misused it. For the first time, the Modi government completely abolished the sedition law,” he said.
Shah said the first duty of the state is justice. “Judiciary, Executive, and Legislature are the three pillars of democracy. The makers of our Constitution divided the work among these three to give strong administration to the country. Today, for the first time, these three together will give the country a justice-centric criminal system and not a punishment-centric one,” he said.
“For the first time, laws are going to be made according to the spirit of our Constitution under the leadership of Modi. The new laws are framed by keeping in mind the core values of our Constitution - individual freedom, human rights, and equal treatment for all,” Shah said.
Replying to the debate, which started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, Shah said three major amendments have been brought in the bills, including giving relief to medical professionals who sometimes face intimidation from the kin of patients.
Participating in the debate, Owaisi alleged that the new criminal bills are a threat to the civil liberties and rights of the people as they give sweeping powers to the police to act as “judge, jury, and executor.” He said several provisions incorporated in the BNS were “very dangerous.”
Speaking in the same vein, former NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal said such important bills should not be passed in such a way.
On the criminal justice system, the home minister said the timeline has been the biggest barrier to securing justice in the country. “Justice is not delivered timely.... Tarikh pe tarikh milti hain (prolonged trial) ... Everyone keeps shifting the blame on each other,” he said.
Shah added that now an FIR will have to be filed within three days of receiving the complaint, and the preliminary inquiry will have to be finished within 14 days.
