The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) delivered a scathing critique of the proposed Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence Bill of 2011 yesterday. The National Advisory Council (NAC) of the Government of India recently announced its publication of a draft bill intended to address the pressing issue of inter-religious and communal tensions and violence in the subcontinent.
"Created to 'interface with civil society' with a 'special focus on disadvantaged groups,'" said lawyers for the Foundation in a letter to Prime Minister Manhoman Singh and Chairperson of the NAC, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, "the National Advisory Council has failed miserably in carrying out its mandate by offering this bias-ridden, short-sighted, and ill-conceived measure."
HAF's legal team urged withdrawal of the Bill from legislative consideration on behalf of non-resident Indian members of the Foundation as well as Indian citizen relatives, friends, and colleagues of members. Amongst numerous fatal flaws, HAF argued, that on its face, the Bill unfairly singled out Hindu citizens and violated basic principles of equality under the law, separation of powers, innocent until proven guilty, fairness, and due process.
"Events throughout India’s history have shown that communal violence takes numerous forms, and has diverse culprits and countless victims. There has never been a single theme to these events and thus no one community should be subject to blanket culpability,” stated HAF’s letter. “The Bill, while arguably intended to protect against and prevent such violence, unfortunately ignores obvious historical and contemporary realities, and, will consequently only serve to further instigate inter-religious and communal tensions as it wrongly singles out a particular community - the Hindu majority.”
Click here to download the letter (pdf) or Click here to view the letter online.
