The haste shown by the Congress in pushing the Communal Violence Bill on the eve of the lok Sabha election smacks of hypocrisy. Now the BJP should support the modified Bill to prove its change of heart
It is a tragedy that whenever any pro-minority or pro-Dalit policy initiative is mooted several eyebrows are raised and swords are drawn from sheaths. Seen in this perspective, the ferocious reaction from some political parties on the proposed Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill, 2013 is not unnatural. Intriguingly, since its conception the idea invited the wrath of the principal Opposition party and its ilk, as they perceive it as yet another minorities' appeasement ploy by the 'extra-constitutional' National Advisory Council, headed by Sonia Gandhi and its members drawn from civil society. Nonetheless, the 'extra-constitutional’ rhetoric failed to carry weight when the groups demonstrated over-enthusiasm in their overt support to the anti-corruption draft bill, prepared by an unconstitutional civil society group led by the Anna conglomerate, and forced it upon a constitutionally elected Parliament for enactment.
The proposed anti-riot Bill is dire need of the hour and an important milestone to ensure a fearless life for the minorities. Their worsening plight is not a result of their timidity or inertia, not even incapacity but it is the consequence of the fear syndrome and siege mentality. The tales of agony and distress that recurrently emanate from the relief camps in Muzaffarnagar comprehensively point to the inadequacy and ineptness of the existing laws to address the predicament of the riot victims and the deliberate neglect on the part of the state machinery to protect the life and property of its citizens. Instead of straight away sacking the SP regime in Uttar Pradesh, the Union Home Minister deemed it more important to estimate a comparative statistics of the communal riots tally that increased from 410 in 2012 to 451 till date in 2013.
It is a sordid saga that haunted by the trauma of partition and its after-effects, Indian minorities, particularly Muslims, saw in independent India a commitment to the ideals of secularism, tolerance and accommodation. Unfortunately, due to the socio-political events and the resultant institutional decay during the last five decades, after the exit of Jawaharlal Nehru from the political scene, their faith in the system and expectations from those very ideals have been completely shattered. There is ample evidence to prove how, in the guise of secularism, Indian Muslims were reduced to third-rate citizens, and how our political parties played the minority card to emerge victorious in the electoral politics and garnered international support as champions of minority interests.
Nehru kept on emphasising that the freedom for which India had laboured through generations of sufferings was for all the people of India, and not for one group or class or followers of one religion. He felt, “Hindus must always remember that the interest and wellbeing of the minorities are their sacred trust. If they fail in their trust then they injure not only the country but themselves.”
Those who succeeded Nehru had neither his vision nor qualities or perspective to insulate India’s edifice of secularism and tolerance from fanatic and communal forces mushroomed in various forms. On the one hand a false phobia was generated among the Hindus about the growing influence of Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, on the other and the rising economic prosperity of Muslims through petro-dollar remittances was projected as a threat to the Hindu commercial ventures and the consequent Hindu status in the Hindu-majority state. Besides, the Muslims were kept under a sense of constant fear from the extreme Right as well as the left, dubbing them anti-Islam.
The Turkaman Gate incident of 1975, the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, and the demolition of Babri masjid in 1992 heralded an epoch of hatred and fear. Atrocities on Christian missionaries, Gujarat carnage, Kandhamal violence and murder of Dalits, stoked fear and led to precipitation of siege mentality of the minority groups. Against the backdrop of such a dismal climate of de-secularising state machineries, prospering communal culture, and partisan police force, minority groups definitely deserve some special Constitutional instrument for the protection of their lives and properties along the similar lines as the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The communal violence Bill will go a long way in providing a deterrent against the habitual perpetuators of communal riots as the Bill envisages three-year imprisonment for unleashing hate propaganda and two to five years imprisonment for dereliction of duty by government servants. More significantly, the Bill ensures active involvement of the Human Rights Commission in the prevention of communal violence.
It is, indeed, difficult to buy the argument that the Union Government will misuse its provisions and infringe on the federal autonomy of regional governments. Is there any law on this planet that is not violated or misused by one or the other governmentIJ Needless to mention that strict observance of established rules and procedures without prejudices itself is a big bulwark against possible infringements. Further, the misuse of the provisions can always be remedied through amendments and even repeal of the Act.
Now that the widely contested pro-minority bias in the provisions of the Bill that generated apprehension about a backlash from the aggrieved minorities has been dropped in the modified draft, it is time the BJP — which of late has revealed a change of heart — should extend support to the riot victims demonstrating magnanimity as Atal Bihari Vajpayee did in the graceful passage of the Jamia Millia Islamia Act-1988.
Indeed, the Congress is guilty of dumping the sensitive draft Bill in cold storage for nearly two years without giving the required space to the stakeholders to deliberate upon its nitty-gritty. Curiously, the haste with which the party is rushing for its enactment on the eve of the lok Sabha election categorically exposes its latent hypocrisy. Nonetheless, the spirit of compassion and fair-play underneath the gesture needs to be honoured and parties across the board should surge ahead to erase the bitter memories of 1984 and 2002 from the hearts and minds of the victims.
(Prof Mujtaba Khan is Director, Academic Staff College, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)