Mumbai, Sep 15: Terming the proposed Communal Violence Bill as “dangerous”, BJP today said that the bill presupposed that no member of the majority community could ever be a victim of the communal violence.
BJP general secretary Venkaiah Naidu said at a press conference here that under the draft bill, no member of the minority community would be punished.
Naidu said his party would oppose the bill tooth and nail in the Parliament and outside.
Naidu said the bill presumed that only the majority community was prone to commit communal offences, and therefore the “legislative intent” was that culpability and punishment should be confined only to majority community.
Also, “law and order is a state subject and the centre is trying to intrude upon the domain of the states”, Naidu said.
The bill was “dangerous” as not only it would affect the federal structure of the Constitution but it would also endanger the national unity, he said.
The former BJP president alleged that it had been drafted to cater to vote bank politics of the Congress. “The bill is divisive... it can lead the country to anarchy and chaos.”
“In the recent National Integration Council meeting, several Chief Ministers stayed away, as they were opposed to the bill. We thought the government would put the bill in cold storage. But, Union Minister Veerappa Moily has said the government is committed to enact the law,” he said. PTI
