Communal violence

The proposed communal violence bill recognizes identity based or targeted crimes and organised mass violence as special offences. While it recommends penalties for dereliction of duty by officials on the ground, it also fixes culpability and defines the form of punishment for higher-ups in the chain of command. It also recommends the creation of special agencies, both at the national level and in the states, to ensure accountability of public officials. Such an authority will monitor and look into complaints and issue advisories and recommendations in cases of action taken in bad faith by public officials and governments.

But disagreements have cropped up. The right wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party has objected to the bill’s "special protection" of religious minorities. Yet civil society voices have welcomed that feature as a much-needed corrective measure.

New National Authority

Vrinda Grover, a lawyer, quit the committee expressing displeasure over its insistence on creating a National Authority. But she says protection of minorities is a must. "There is today empirical evidence documented in state reports which systematically records that the targeting is of religious minorities, that there is institutional bias especially in agencies like the police." Grover adds, "All data points to religious minorities bearing the brunt of communal violence."

Father Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India also believes that minorities have been targeted more frequently and stresses the importance of legislation to protect them, calling them "the most vulnerable groups in the country...That is why people are voicing their concerns about a more stringent law." Joseph says communal violence affects everyone, "and therefore I think there is a need for this law that will safeguard all communities, particularly those who are easy victims of communal violence."

Law and order

Under the existing federal system of governance, states are conferred with the role and responsibility for maintaining law and order, but there have been too many instances where they have either failed to act decisively or even abdicated responsibility of maintaining law and order, resulting in colossal loss of human life and property. Grover says state governments should be held accountable for communal violence. "We have always looked upon the state to provide protection, now we are asking for the state to be accountable. This shift has to be absorbed. The government I can imagine will resist it but those who claim to represent civil society must be able to make this leap forward," says Grover.

If the communal violence bill, drafted by the National Advisory Council (NAC) chaired by Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, is adopted by parliament, India’s central government will be able to intervene in cases of communal violence and attacks against specific social or ethnic groups.

Author: Murali Krishnan
Editor: Sarah Berning