By TCN News,
New Delhi: All India Christian Council (AICC) has written a letter to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh requesting a serious rewrite of the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill.
In the letter AICC lists its concerns about the bill:
1. The Bill doesn’t adequately address the question of hate campaigns and the “communalisation process” (i.e. hate speech published in local language media) that precede communal violence. This well-studied phenomenon of activities, some already illegal but not often prosecuted, is a root issue.
2. The Bill doesn’t take into account the demography and pattern of living of various communities. Specifically, anti-Christian violence is normally dismissed by public officials as “sporadic” (although there may be a serious incident daily in some areas). Because other minorities live in concentrated or contiguous areas, those “communally disturbed areas” are more easily identified. In Orissa, Kandhamal would likely not fit the Bill’s definition but we know what happened there in 2007-2008.
3. The Bill doesn’t give States guidelines on reparations and compensation. We need a uniform national policy as well standards on the assessment of damages after riots in order to prevent ghettoisation.
4. The Bill doesn’t fully address police and administrative impunity properly or adequately. The “good faith” clause, which exempts police and public servants from prosecution unless there is permission from the executive branch, is a major concern.
AICC joins secular and Muslim organizations in opposing the Bill in its present form. The groups are campaigning against the Bill saying that it doesn’t fully acknowledge the individual victims, teats communal violence as spontaneous rioting, and gives more power to state governments without recognizing that in numerous instances state machinery had acted in a biased manner.
Departing from other organizations that want to kill the Bill, AICC said many provisions are acceptable but some changes are required to make it stong.
Letter is signed by President of AICC Dr. Joseph D’souza and Secretary General John Dayal.
Link:
http://www.aiccindia.org