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Among free Indias gravest failuresalong with its inability to end hunger,
pervasive poverty and discriminationis the continued targeting of people
with violence and arson only because of their faith or caste. This periodic
blood-letting, mass sexual assault and arson leaves a trail of great suffering
of innocents, and repeated assaults against the idea of a pluralist and
humane India.
Decades of engagement and study of communal violence in India has
convinced me that no riot can continue beyond a few hours unless state
authorities choose to allow the violence to persist. Despite this, in Nellie in
1983, Delhi in 1984, Bhagalpur in 1989, Mumbai in 1992-93, Gujarat in
2002, Kandhamal in 2008 and Muzaffarnagar in 2013, state administrations
mostly consented to allow large-scale targeted massacres to unfold. For
people in uniform and magistrates to take sides in hate battles is a
profound crime against humanity. Yet this still is recognized at best as a
moral failure, not a punishable crime.
For this reason, the centrepiece of the proposed Communal and Targeted
Violence Bill which Parliament may consider this winter session is the
creation of a new crime, of dereliction of duty by public officials punishable
with up to five years imprisonment. Combined with command
responsibility, this makes the senior political or administrative authority who
directs officials not to act, or to act with bias, criminally culpable.
FIRST PUBLISHED: THU, DEC 19 2013. 08 01 PM IST HOME OPINION
Harsh Mander | A law to end targeted violence
India needs a law to check the menace of communal and caste violence. The arguments against it
are spurious
Harsh Mander
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Chief ministers J. Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi have argued that this
measure will demoralize officers. This is equivalent to the argument that
anti-corruption laws will cause official paralysis. On the contrary, such laws
strengthen and support officers of moral integrity and fairness, because
they shield them from illicit political pressures and defend them from
punitive action. At the Centre for Equity Studies, our studies of many riots
demonstrate empirically that those rare officers who display exemplary
courage by upholding the law with fairness and firmness are routinely
punished, whereas biased officers named explicitly in the reports of
commissions of enquiry in almost every case have been rewarded. This law
will damage the morale only of officers who choose to ignore their duty
under the law and the Constitution.
We also found in virtually every episode of targeted mass violence the
impunity of those who perpetrate hate atrocities because of the institutional
bias of the criminal justice system. In the way criminal justice procedures
are framed, the victim has virtually no role. It is the state which investigates,
charge-sheets, prosecutes and appeals. This is because it is assumed that
the state will always be on the side of the victim and opposed to the
accused. But in incidents of targeted violence, state institutionsthe police,
prosecution and magistracymay actually be hostile to the victim on
communal or caste grounds, and support the accused. Therefore, the
second major pillar of the Bill is protecting victims rights during the justice
process, allowing her to get copies of police statements, adduce her own
evidence independent of the public prosecutor, and appeal in the event of
acquittals.
The third essential pillar of the Bill prescribes national minimum standards
for relief and rehabilitation. In both Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar, state
governments refused to institute relief camps, gave tightfisted support to
the camps which the victimized community was forced to establish, and then
prematurely wound up the camps before the survivors had the confidence
to return home. In most riots, reparation is grossly inadequate to enable the
survivors to rebuild their broken lives, shelters and livelihoods. What is
more, compensation rates differ widely, and are seen as instruments of
selective political largesse rather than the rights of survivors from a caring
and just state.
Another charge against the Bill is that it violates the federal structure
because law and order is the exclusive domain of the states. However, the
constitutional framework does envisage the duty of the Union government
to protect the national integrity which is threatened in times of targeted hate
violence. Still, responding to the sensitivities of any state, the current
revised draft Bill deletes the creation of any overarching central National
Authority charged with ensuring fairness and justice by state governments
in communal situations. Instead, these duties have been conferred on
existing institutions: the National Human Rights Commission and State
Human Rights Commissions. The powers of these commissions under the
Bill are no more than what they enjoy todayto observe, enquire and
recommend, but not to encroach on the authority of state governments.
There is reason for people to argue that the timing of the Billnine years
too late and at the eve of a formidably uphill general electiondoes render
the motives behind its belated introduction suspect. But I have spent time
with survivors of many episodes of mass communal violence, from Nellie
and Tilak Vihar, Delhi dating back three decades to the recent survivors of
the carnages in Lower Assam and Muzaffarnagar. The enormity of their
sufferingas they struggle even today with unspeakable loss, with
permanently broken lives, haunted by memories of hate and betrayal
makes it imperative for all parties which claim to be secular to set aside
political competitiveness. Let them come together to build consensus for the
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DRAWBRIDGE
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rescue India
passage of a law which could help finally push into history targeted hate
violence.
Harsh Mander is a former member of the National Advisory Council.
Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com

29

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First Published: Thu, Dec 19 2013. 08 01 PM IST
TARGETED VIOLENCE LAWS COMMUNAL AND TARGETED VIOLENCEBILL PARLIAMENT HUMAN RIGHTS
Narendra Modi: The making of the
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6 comments a day ago
abhijit pal shame on the author for
authoring half truths......this pseudo sicular
breed will soon come to an end and will
Time of return to India impacts tax on
overseas salary
1 comment 6 hours ago
Jai K Taking into consideration Visa rules
etc, those working abroad for short periods
through the year stand to lose..
The killing fields of Assam and a modern
day Nero
1 comment 7 hours ago
Secular Why are you giving so much
attention to this ? BJP was not ruling Assam.
There is no way we can blame
Congress debating idea of enlarged
UPA 3 to stop Narendra Modi
1 comment 4 hours ago
Sachi Mohanty I am all for "sickular"
parties coming together to form a
government with a non-Rahul PM.:P
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Praveen P.P. 5 months ago
The very nature of the proposed Bill is Divide and Rule followed by the Colonial British under
section 153A of IPC 1860. Note that the dates in History when Clive defeated Siraj Daula at
the battle of Plassey in 1757 and year 1857 a full century later the First Indian Independence
Movement (Sepoy Mutiny as the British would have us to call it). There is only 3 years in the
making for the IPC 1860.
The Targeted Communal Violence Bill, Nine years in the making. Read them together. A
country known for its peaceful and dharmic way of life is being ransacked by the 'Mlechas' of
the Desert. Is there no end to it?


Reply
Shekar 5 months ago
Thank you, Mr. Mander - for bringing some details of the proposed Bill to the knowledge of the
public - in an easy to understand form. Let us hope your wish will be fulfilled by those
charged with representing us in Parliament.
Our democracy is in danger of losing it's way into a simplistic majoritarianism - in all manner
of things. We need a suitable Bill to address this problem.


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