Communal Violence Bill

The so called Prevention of communal violence bill is actually a Communal violence Bill for perpetration of crimes against one community against another.

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/why-should-taxpayer-fund-the-nac-time-to-pull-the-plug-81668.html

Nice counter points provided by FirstPost surprisingly "Modi-Basher" 18 Network website

The problem with the NAC is that it is not “national” in character, since its membership is picked on the basis of Sonia Gandhi’s personal preferences. It is not truly representative of a wider cross-section of opinion, and certainly not inclusive – a key watchword in the UPA’s vocabulary.

The NAC’s charter says it “has been set up as an interface with civil society”. But if this is so, one wonders why the UPA government had so many problems with Anna Hazare’s movement, since it was surely one more representative of civil society – and certainly demonstrated wider public support than the NAC.

Harsh Mandar - a crack and cronie of Sonia Gandhi picked civil society provides the following Enlightened version for divinding the society to create and preserve communal harmony

Most of its members are people she is comfortable with and some of its members are, in fact, there in order to target the Congress’ principal principal opponent, the BJP.
This is the reason why we have Harsh Mander – who has made a career out of targeting the Gujarat government after the 2002 riots – the key steward of the Communal Violence Bill.

Mander’s justification for the Bill was published by The Indian Express recently:

Innumerable commissions of enquiry and fact-finding reports confirm recurring abdication of state responsibility, bias and even complicity of local administration, law enforcement and criminal justice machinery. They fail to prevent, control or provide basic relief. These include the targeting of Dalits and tribals across states; of Biharis in Maharashtra, Assam and elsewhere; of Sikhs in several states in 1984; of Muslims in Nellie, Bhagalpur, Bhiwandi, Mumbai, and Gujarat; of Tamils in Karnataka; of Christians in Kandhamal. Contrast this with any instance in which Muslims in Gujarat attack the dominant group or Biharis in Maharashtra attack the dominant group. The might of the state machinery would come down and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law and beyond. This is the reality.

He concludes: “Let us not allow this debate to be muddied by the same tired script about Hindus and Muslims, just because that is the only prism the right-wing refracts itself through

We could accept that statement at face value, but for this exclusion. Missing from Mander’s long list of targeted minorities is the case of Kashmir – and the ethnic cleansing of the Pandits by the majority community in that state. Was this instance a deliberate or inadvertent exclusion?


It is difficult to see how a Communal Violence Bill can be effective without carrying all major political parties with it. If the BJP – everyone’s prime contender for the label of “communal” – is excluded, how will the Bill obtain bipartisan support?
The bottomline is this: the NAC has lost its neutrality with this bill and no longer qualifies as a credible civil society representative.
If Anna Hazare was criticised for appropriating the robes of civil society, the NAC has even less legitimacy than it as it has been handpicked by a political party.
It is time to pull the plug on the NAC. There is no reason why the taxpayer should fund a body that seems politically partisan and, anyway, can only be one voice of civil society.