Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in response to a draft of the Communal Violence Bill that was sent out to states for perusal. Jayalalithaa says she had earlier raised the issue that many provisions of the Bill were vaguely worded and left they open to wide subjective interpretations and hence misuse.
Describing the Bill as yet another blatant attempt to totally bypass the state governments, Jayalalithaa said that it aims to keep them absolutely powerless and totally at the mercy of the Centre.
She says though the government has made certain modifications in the revised draft Bill, these are cosmetic at best.
The definition of 'hate propaganda' in the new Bill requires a very weak level of proof of intention and could therefore be misused, she argued. She has also opposed criminal actions suggested against administrative officers and says communal violence is a much more complex issue and should not be reduced to a simplistic prescription of penalising public servants.
Jayalalithaa asserted that law and order is a state subject and any interference in that is unacceptable. According to her it would be unwise to pose the Bill as one size fits all solution to a complex problem that requires sensitive co-operation between Centre and states.
She added that any haste in bringing in this legislation in the light of 2014 elections without wide consultation among all political parties and stakeholders would be a completely undemocratic move and urged the Prime Minister not to introduce the Bill in the winter session.
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