By TCN News,
New Delhi: Citing lacuna in the draft Communal Violence Bill, 2005 that the Central Government is likely to reintroduce in the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament, eminent civil rights activists including John Dayal, Shabnam Hashmi and Vrinda Grover have withdrawn themselves from the process of National Advisory Council.
“Having engaged with the NAC process for 7 months in different capacities, we find that the draft in progress is severely insufficient to address the lacunae and gaps of the government Bill of 2005. At this juncture, with the government threatening to reintroduce the discredited Communal Violence Bill of 2005 in the current session of Parliament and our dissatisfaction with the draft in progress, we have taken the step to withdraw from the NAC process,” the activists said in a press statement.
Civil society groups and activists have been engaged with the need for a law to deal with situations of communal violence. The Communal Violence Bill, 2005, of the Home Ministry has been repeatedly rejected by civil society as it does not address the core issues of challenging impunity, ensuring accountability of the sponsors and perpetrators of the violence and securing the rights of victims and survivors. Non-negotiables and key elements of this law were prepared through national consultations organised by anti-communal groups, and these were given to the government for being introduced into the law. The National Advisory Council too adopted these as its framework when it began its work on the Bill in July 2010. We, the undersigned, have been part of the initiative taken by civil society, and the exercise within the NAC, they informed.
“We will continue the fight for a strong CV Bill and present an alternative draft through civil society efforts. We invite secular, democratic, people’s groups and movements from across India to join these efforts.”
Signatories to the statement are: Shabnam Hashmi, John Dayal, Vrinda Grover, Usha Ramanathan.