In the present form the Communal Violence Bill has been rejected by all major anti-communal groups in India and it will prove to be dangerous for the minorities, Muslims, Christians and all others. The govt is pushing the bill. We must mount pressure within this week to stop the govt from tabling this bill in the Parliament.
Pasted below is a public statement that was issued after the recent National Consultation on the Communal Violence Bill (see also a critique of the CV Bill: http://www.anhadin.net/article97.html).
We appeal to all to urgently endorse the public statement by adding their names online. We will print and send the above public statement (with all signatures gathered by the March 5th, 2010) to the Prime Minister of India, The Home Minister and to the UPA Chairperson.
* To directly endorse and sign the public statement go to: [http://www.anhadin.net/article101.html] [signatories will recieve an automatically generated confirmation mail to validate your signatures. Please remember to also look into you spam folders too incase you cant find the confirmation mail.]
* We also invite all signatories to send individual faxes / e-mails to The Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh ( fax-23019334,
Please treat this as urgent.
You can use a free faxing facility to send you faxes directly via the internet: (http://www.tpc.int/fax_cover_auto.html) [you must prefix the fax numbers with: +91-11 ]
I sincerely hope we can mobilise atleast 100 letters to the authorities.
Shabnam Hashmi
Anhad
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Proposed Model Letter For Those Sending Individual Letters
Date:
To: Honorable Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh
Subject: We demand that the government revise the proposed Communal Violence Bill
Text:
Dear Prime Minister,
I [or we] write to you to vigourously protest against the proposed Communal Violence Bill in its present form that is soon to be tabled in the Parliment. As responsible citizens of this country we find it truly reprehensible and unfair that wise counsel of anti communal groups, human rights defenders and independent legal experts was not taken stock of and their very important suggestions and modifications have been totally ignored. The bill in its present form as is being proposed is dangerous for the health of our secular democracy and it could cause great harm to protect victims of communal violence. We want you to urgently intervene and ensure that the vitally needed legislation on Communal Violence be reviewed and revised. We want your government not to rush in a law for electoral or short term considerations. We want this important law to be amongst the finest and the best in the world; As citizens of country that has been torn and wounded by communal strife, we want a law that best protects us and gives us justice. You will set a fine democratic precedent by taking a step back and listening to our plea.
Yours sincerely
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Statement Issued at National Consultation on The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control & Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2009
February 12-13, 2010, New Delhi
The demand for a law on communal violence emerged from a brutal record of recurring violence in our country, the increasing occurrence of gender-based crimes in communal conflagrations, and complete impunity for mass crimes. The reasons are many - lack of political will to prosecute perpetrators, State complicity in communal crimes, lack of impartial investigation, and lack of sensitivity to victim’s experiences. But there is also, crucially, the glaring inadequacy of the law. Today, despite huge strides in international jurisprudence, India continues to lack an adequate domestic legal framework, which would allow survivors of communal violence to seek and to secure justice.
The UPA Government’s Common Minimum Programme in 2004 had promised to give the citizens of this country a ‘comprehensive legislation’ to fill this legal vacuum. We were promised a legislation that would strengthen the hands of the citizens in the struggle against communalism. However, The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control & Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill 2005, introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December 5, 2005, was a complete betrayal of that promise. The 2005 Bill was roundly criticized and rejected by civil society at all levels. Eminent jurists, legal experts, activists who worked with survivors, and all prominent minority groups rejected the Bill and urged the Government to make serious changes in it. The Bill was sent to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs for its review and recommendations. But the Standing Committee report, when it was finally tabled in Parliament in December 2006, suggested no significant changes.
Between 2005 and now, civil society groups have repeatedly engaged with the government at all levels and time and again communicated our serious objections to this Bill. We have written critiques, given alternative formulations, written alternative draft laws, and suggested changes in several specific Chapters and clauses. Civil society groups have met everyone over the last 4 years - from the Chairperson of the UPA, Prime Minister, two successive Home Ministers, officials in the Home Ministry, to members of parliament. And yet the Government appears unwilling to listen.
[. . .]
Full Text at: http://www.anhadin.net/article101.html
