Ctv Bill Nac
3
Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access t o Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011 • The new draft bill on the prevention of communal and targeted violence is a modest contribution towards ensuring that India's citizens enjoy the protection of the state regardless of their religion, language or caste. • The draft law framed by the National Advisor y Council and released earlier this month for comment and feedback is a huge improvement over the bill originally drawn up by the United Progressive Alliance government in 2005. • The earlier version paid lip service to the need for a law to tackle communal violence but made matters worse by giving the authorities greater coercive powers instead of finding ways to eliminate the institutional bias against the minorities, Dalits and adivasis, which lies at the heart of all targeted violence in India. • The November 1984 massacre of Sikhs provides a good illustra tion of how the institutionalised “riot system” works. • Let us start with the victim. She is unable to get the local police to protect the lives of her family members or property. She is unable to file a proper complaint in a police station. Senior police officers, bureaucrats and Ministers, who by now are getting reports from all across the city, State and country, do not act immediately to ensure the targeted minorities are protected. Incendiary languag e against the victims is freely used. Women who are raped or sexually assaulte d get no sympathy or assistance. When the riot victims form makeshift relief camps, the authorities harass them and try to make them leave. The victims have to struggle for years before the authorities finally provide some compensation for the death, injury and destruction they have suffered. As for the perpetrators of the violence, they get away since the police and the government do not gather evidence, conduc t no investigation and appoint biased prosecutors, thereby sabotaging the chances of conviction and punishment. • With some modifications here and there, this is the same sickening script which played out in Gujarat in 2002, when Muslims were the targeted group. • On a smaller scale, all victims of organised, targeted violence know from experienc e and instinct that they cannot automatically count on the local police coming to their help should they be attacked. • If one were to abstract the single most important stylised fact from the Indian “riot system”, it is this: violence occurs and is not immediately controlled because policemen and local administrat ors refuse to do their duty. • It is also evident that they do so because the victims belong to a minority group, precisely the kind of situation the Constituent Assembly had in mind when it wrote Article 15(1) of the Constitution: “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them”. • How are policemen and officials able to get away with violating the Constitution in this manner? • Because they know that neither the law nor their superiors will act against them. • What we need, thus, is not so much a new law defining new crimes (although that would be useful too) but a law to ensure that the police and bureaucrats and their political masters follow the existing law of the land. • In other words, we need a law that punishes them for discriminating agains t citizens who happen to be minorities. • The CTV bill sets out to protect religious and linguistic minorities in any State in India, as well as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, from targeted violence, including organised violence. • Apart from including the usual Indian Penal Code offences, the NAC draft modernises the definition of sexual assault to cover crimes other than rape and elaborates on the crime of hate propaganda already covered by Section 153A of the IPC. • Most importantly, it broadens the definition of dereliction of duty — which is already a crime — and, for the first time in India, adds offences by public servants or other superiors for breach of command responsibil ity. • “Where it is shown that continuous widespread or systematic unlawful activity has occurred,” the draft says, “it can be reasonably presumed that the superior in command of the public servant whose duty it was to prevent the commission of communal and targeted violence,
-
Upload
abhinavsharma225235 -
Category
Documents
-
view
218 -
download
0
Transcript of Ctv Bill Nac
8/6/2019 Ctv Bill Nac
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ctv-bill-nac 1/3
Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations)Bill, 2011
• The new draft bill on the prevention of communal and targeted violence is a modestcontribution towards ensuring that India's citizens enjoy the protection of the state regardlessof their religion, language or caste.
• The draft law framed by the National Advisory Council and released earlier this month forcomment and feedback is a huge improvement over the bill originally drawn up by the United
Progressive Alliance government in 2005.• The earlier version paid lip service to the need for a law to tackle communal violence but
made matters worse by giving the authorities greater coercive powers instead of finding waysto eliminate the institutional bias against the minorities, Dalits and adivasis, which lies at theheart of all targeted violence in India.
• The November 1984 massacre of Sikhs provides a good illustration of how the institutionalised“riot system” works.
• Let us start with the victim. She is unable to get the local police to protect the lives of herfamily members or property. She is unable to file a proper complaint in a police station. Seniorpolice officers, bureaucrats and Ministers, who by now are getting reports from all across thecity, State and country, do not act immediately to ensure the targeted minorities areprotected. Incendiary language against the victims is freely used. Women who are raped orsexually assaulted get no sympathy or assistance. When the riot victims form makeshift relief
camps, the authorities harass them and try to make them leave. The victims have to strugglefor years before the authorities finally provide some compensation for the death, injury anddestruction they have suffered. As for the perpetrators of the violence, they get away sincethe police and the government do not gather evidence, conduct no investigation and appointbiased prosecutors, thereby sabotaging the chances of conviction and punishment.
• With some modifications here and there, this is the same sickening script which played out inGujarat in 2002, when Muslims were the targeted group.
• On a smaller scale, all victims of organised, targeted violence know from experience andinstinct that they cannot automatically count on the local police coming to their help shouldthey be attacked.
• If one were to abstract the single most important stylised fact from the Indian “riot system”, itis this: violence occurs and is not immediately controlled because policemen and localadministrators refuse to do their duty.
• It is also evident that they do so because the victims belong to a minority group, precisely thekind of situation the Constituent Assembly had in mind when it wrote Article 15(1) of theConstitution: “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion,race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them”.
• How are policemen and officials able to get away with violating the Constitution in thismanner?
• Because they know that neither the law nor their superiors will act against them.
• What we need, thus, is not so much a new law defining new crimes (although that would beuseful too) but a law to ensure that the police and bureaucrats and their political mastersfollow the existing law of the land.
• In other words, we need a law that punishes them for discriminating against citizens whohappen to be minorities.
• The CTV bill sets out to protect religious and linguistic minorities in any State in India, as wellas the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, from targeted violence, includingorganised violence.
• Apart from including the usual Indian Penal Code offences, the NAC draft modernises thedefinition of sexual assault to cover crimes other than rape and elaborates on the crime of hate propaganda already covered by Section 153A of the IPC.
• Most importantly, it broadens the definition of dereliction of duty — which is already a crime —and, for the first time in India, adds offences by public servants or other superiors for breachof command responsibility.
• “Where it is shown that continuous widespread or systematic unlawful activity has occurred,”the draft says, “it can be reasonably presumed that the superior in command of the publicservant whose duty it was to prevent the commission of communal and targeted violence,
8/6/2019 Ctv Bill Nac
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ctv-bill-nac 2/3
8/6/2019 Ctv Bill Nac
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ctv-bill-nac 3/3
• In any case, the Bill's definition covers Hindus as Hindus in States where they are in a minority(such as Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Nagaland), as linguistic minorities in virtually everyState, and as SCs and STs.
• More importantly, persons from majority communities who suffer in the course of communaland targeted incidents will be entitled to the same relief as minority victims.
• If someone feels there is any ambiguity about this, the bill's language can easily bestrengthened to clarify this.
