Communal violence bill – strongly opposed by Jayalalitha; says it is fascism

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa slammed the draft communal violence bill as “fascist” which would keep the states under constant threat of dismissal and give sweeping powers to the Centre.

In a hard-hitting attack on the proposed bill, Jayalalithaa said that under the garb of preventing communal and targeted violence, the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill was yet another “blatant atttempt” to totally bypass the state governments.

The bill concentrates all powers in the Centre rendering the state governments absolutely powerless and totally at the mercy of the Centre, she said in a strongly-worded statement.

Calling it an “undesirable piece of legislation”, she said it was being brought in by a Central regime that was running “out of steam and ideas for survival.” The AIADMK chief said it was the “sacred duty” of all those who believed in democracy to oppose it in toto and throw it out “lock, stock and barrel,” at the introduction stage itself.

The bill was aimed at keeping the state governments under the constant threat of dismissal, perhaps because of the Central government’s limited capability to use Article 356 of the Constitution in view of a Supreme Court verdict in this regard, the Chief Minister said.

The Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 sought to give “sweeping powers” to the Central government, to the total exclusion of state governments in handling instances of communal and targeted violence, Jayalalithaa said.

She said this vitiated the norms of Centre-state relations envisaged by the Justice Sarkaria Commission.