Thursday, October 6, 2011

Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (access to justice and reparations) Bill 2011 Promoting communalism in the facade of fighting it

By Dr TH Chowdary

THE UPA-II government is planning to introduce a Bill titled ‘Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill’ in the Parliament. A close reading of this draft Bill shows up the UPA’s presumption that the majority community namely, Hindus are responsible for start of every communal riot and that these riots are promoted by Hindus’ speeches and writings and songs which are offensive to the minorities and promote hate towards them. The Bill provides for the Constitution an authority composed of minority persons who can declare an incident as a communal riot and can demand the Government to impose President’s rule by dismissing the State government in whose State the communal riot takes place.

Law and order are a State subject under the Constitution. Now, a third authority, a ‘Minorities Body’ as distinct from the State Government and its Governor or the Central government is created. Its decision to dismiss the State government and introduce President’s rule is final. Some clauses of the Bill clearly show (and have already judged) that every communal riot is started by the majority community that is, Hindus, targeting the minorities to carry out genocidal killing. That is, Hindus are judged to be congenital, habitual minority killers.

A riot between Sunni and Shia sects of Muslims is not a communal riot; a riot between Kammas and Reddys among Hindus is not a communal riot; only if the riot involves a Muslim or a Christian, it is a communal riot and it is assumed to have been started by Hindus. Any minority person can lodge a FIR ( First Information Report) in a Police Station that so and so has made a hate speech or sang a song which offends the sentiments of the minority and therefore incites communal strife. The complainant need not disclose his identity . The police are bound to act according to this Bill. For eg: the singing of Vandemataram is held to be offensive to Muslim sentiments and therefore generative of hatred of Muslims by Hindus . So, if the song is sung, any Muslim can file an anonymous FIR and the singer and the organisation behind him or to which he belongs are offenders and any one among them, can be put in jail. If one reads all the clauses it will be clear that as the British declared a tribe known as ‘Sturtpuram gangs’ near Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh as congenital, habitual offenders and criminals, the UPA-II is going to enact a law which will condemn Hindus in the country as congenital minority killers with genocidal intentions.

The working group of that National Advisory Council constituted an advisory group consisting of 22 people. 11 of them are Christians and Muslims and the other 11 are famously known Hindu baiters like Ram Punyani. When the UPA-II ministers and other Congress worthies question the right of an unelected civil society to write the Lokpal Bill, how is it that this unelected working group of an unelected NAC drafts a Bill?

If this Bill becomes an Act, then it will be clear that India will be under a government of the minorities, by the minorities, for the minorities. Would the non Sonia led parties subscribe to the judgment that Hindus are congenitally communal and are intent upon genocidal extermination of minorities? Would the BJP merely make noises like that this Bill will be an assault on the federal structure of our State where law and order are the responsibility of the State and not of the Centre or would it be honest enough to call this an anti-Hindu Bill? Should the BJP not advise the State governments led by it to pass a resolution in their legislatures opposing and condemning this communal Bill which brands Hindus as congenital, unmitigated minority murderers?

In the view of the UPA-II (which appears to be under the tutelage of the minorities because of UPA-II is itself directed and controlled by a person belonging to a minority of foreign origin) Hindus are murderers, Hindus can wage caste riots, similarly, Muslims can wage sectarian riots but Muslims & Christians involved in riots with Hindus are the victims and Hindus are aggressors, no matter in which area, by whom and for what purposes the Hindu -Muslim or Hindu- Christian riot is waged. Similarly a riot between Christians and Muslims is not a communal riot. It is a friendly match.

This Bill when passed will apply to all the States in India except Kashmir because it is a Muslim majority State. Only if that legislature invites the application of this Bill, then it would be applied there also . This exception shows the bias of the UPA-II government against Hindus and for the minorities.

This Bill is a slur on Hindus. It will be the beginning of the emergence of rule of the minorities, for the minorities, by the minorities. Every Hindu with self-respect and consciousness should know that he belongs to one of the only two surviving great civilizations (Hindu and Chinese), in the history of mankind, should be aware that it is Hindu India that gave shelter to the persecuted Jews and Parsis, that gave land and money to Muslims and Christians to build mosques and churches, the country that allows the free practice of every religion and even blaspheming of Hindus, the people who have given certain exclusive rights and privileges (under Article-30) to the minorities but which are not available to Hindus, are going to be branded as minority killers. If they accept this judgments of predatory intolerant, exclusivist religions, they will be inviting serfdom as under the Muslim and the British rule. The chance that they were given in 1947 for self-rule would have been thrown away. Swaraj is slipping from them. They are being calumniated. Passing of this Bill will condemn them to be congenital and habitual killers of people of minority religions – a monstrous lie. Before every chance of preserving Swaraj is legally extinguished, Hindus and all well meaning people even among the minorities should resist and reject this Bill.

This is a test for the BJP to show its nationalism. This is a test for the parties outside the proprietary Congress, to prove that they are really secular and not vassals of minorities in the fond hope of getting their votes by submitting to their anti-Hindu wishes and designs.

Hindus must heed to the inspiring message of Winston S. Churchill.

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

No comments:

Post a Comment