Taking his protest further against Prevention of Communal Violence Bill, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has written letters to his counterparts in various States to deliberate on the issue.
In the letter Modi said that all Chief Ministers should rise beyond political affiliations and come together to oppose the Bill, which is nothing but a blatant attempt of the Centre to interfere with and intrude upon the powers of State Governments.
He emphasised on how the Communal Violence Bill would polarise society on religious and linguistic lines and would introduce the idea of differential application of criminal law to citizens based on religious and linguistic identities. He wrote about how the Bill would demoralise public servants and even impact how the State Government can deal with law and order situations in future.
Among the Chief Ministers, Modi wrote to are Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Prithviraj Chavan, Okram Ibobi Singh, Mukul Sangma and others.
On Thursday Modi had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing his strong opposition to the Bill. In that letter, he listed the grounds on which he opposed the Bill and even pointed out the various sections of the Bill that were flawed.
He had described the Bill as ill-conceived, a recipe for disaster and added that it was driven by vote-bank politics and not concern for society at large.