By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: While Communal Violence and Equal Opportunity Commission bills are most likely to be passed by the Parliament this week before the winter sessions ends, the All India Milli Council today expressed serious concerns on the present form of the bills and demanded their redrafting.
R-L: Gulzar Ahmad Qasmi (UP Milli Council president), Dr Manzoor Alam, Yusuf Hathim Muchall and Mauji Khan (Milli Council official)
Addressing media at Press Club of India in New Delhi, Dr Manzoor Alam, General Secretary, All India Milli Council, said the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill 2005 is not acceptable to the council in the present form as it gives more power to the state than the victims and has nothing to make officials accountable for occurrence of violence in their area. He warned the government that if the bill is passed in present form the council will be forced to launch a public agitation.
On Equal Opportunity Commission Bill 2008, Dr Alam said the provisions of the bill make the commission a toothless body like minority commission or human rights commission as its status will be recommendatory. He demanded that this commission be made at least as powerful as the Central Information Commission.
While further explaining the concerns of the Milli Council on these two bills, Yusuf Hathim Muchalla, senior Bombay High Court lawyer and executive committee member of the Milli Council, described the provisions in them as promise of unreality.
Even if passed by the Parliament, the Communal Violence Bill will not be implemented in the country by the Parliament. The power to implement it in union territories will rest with the Union Government while state governments will implement it in states. This is first weak point of the bill, said Advocate Muchalla adding that this all is because there is no political will to actually curb communal violence and rehabilitate victims. It is just an election promise that is being fulfilled.
The bill has a provision to declare an area of violence in the state as disturbed area and then the area will come under the control of the central government. The declaration of an area as disturbed one will happen only after serious crimes like murder and rape have taken place at large scale. This is the second lacuna in the bill, said Adv Muchalla.
Most importantly, he continued, the bill has no provision to make police officials accountable for the violence that took place in their jurisdiction. And this makes the bill just useless and ineffective as it is the police officials who deliberately do not control riots in which innocent people are killed and their property damaged.
He expressed apprehension that as bureaucrats and police are biased, only minority dominated area will be declared as disturbed and it will be cordoned off making the life of the residents miserable.
He also criticized the provision in the bill that says that compensation for a victim will be paid by a rioter if he is convicted. Given the rate of conviction in communal riot cases – which is either zero or very low – the victims will hardly be compensated. Even if a rioter is convicted he may not be able to compensate as generally he comes from low socio-economic strata of the society and used as pawn by the communal leaders or groups sitting far away.
On Equal Opportunity Commission Bill 2008, Advocate Muchalla demanded that the commission be given power on the lines of a similar commission in UK. Equality in law will not suffice, there is a need for equality in substance, he said.
While demanding level-playing field for the minorities to come up, Advocate Muchalla said the commission should have right to intervene when polices are formulated. He urged the community to create pressure groups who could take up these issues to press the government.