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Off the cuff proposal: Badal
announces new law to stem communal violence
WSN Bureau
Hit by the
communal violence in Jalandhar and Batala, and to a lesser extent
elsewhere in Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has decided
to act in an impulsive fashion.
Within hours of
the violence in Batala, Parkash Singh Badal said his government will
soon begin a new criminal law that will make communal violence
attract very harsh provisions and those convicted may face up to
five years in prison.
The statement
shocked the civil society in Punjab, particularly because it came at
a time when large sections of the civil society are actually
protesting against a similar law being enacted by the Central
government. Badal did not even refer to the federal law but made any
impromptu statement about the new communal violence prohibition
Bill.
Experts said it
would have been better had the Punjab Chief Minister actually taken
steps to bring to book those guilty of deliberately displaying a
highly objectionable portrait of Lord Jesus Christ. The Chief
Minister and his government also singularly seemed to have failed in
keeping under control the MLAs of the BJP who not only sided with
the communal elements but were at the leading them from the front.
That Badal's
statement about bringing in a new criminal law to check communal
violence directly brought disrepute to Punjab's standing as a place
of peace goes without saying, but what it also shows is Badal's
complete ignorance about an extremely important bail currently
before the Indian parliament. No wonder the Akali Dal stand on the
Bill is not long to the public and no one is sure whether Badal even
has a stand on the issue.
Despite so much
violence in Punjab and continuous curfew in Batala, the BJP, ever so
eager to react to any such development, has maintained a deafening
silence. That the Congress also seems to have joined in this
conspiracy of silence showed how India's deeply brahamanical
political parties seemed arrayed against the minorities.
Most
significantly, even after Badal's announcement about bringing in a
new law, not a single political party or politician reacted to the
shocking proposal, thus signifying that the state was either passing
through ennui or no one takes the politicians seriously any more.
As for the bail
at the Central level, it seeks to empower the State and Central
Governments rather than the survivors of communal or ethnic violence
in particular and citizens in general. It restricts the application
to the communally disturbed areas declared/notified under this Bill.
The World Sikh
News had written earlier that for a community that has been such a
receiving edge of the communal paradigm of politics, that has been
suffering for many decades now because of the deeply entrenched
brahamanical powers holding the power levers in India, the Sikhs
have completely failed to engage with the Bill being pushed by the
Central government and the community should reject as useless and
draconian the proposed Bill. (For a complete discussion of what was
wrong with the Central Bill, please refer to the previous edition of
World Sikh News.)
24
February 2010
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