Press release

Scrap Communal Violence Bill says Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan

New Delhi, April 26 2007: As parliament resumes calls are mounting for the Communal Violence Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation Bill to be scrapped. The Bill currently tabled is largely a response to demands in wake of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Campaigners with Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan insist that while the intent behind the Bill is good, it fails to deliver on all key points and could result in further oppression of minorities.

“The Bill in its present form will be yet another tool in the hands of repressive state governments”, says Zakia Jowhar of ActionAid who escaped the riots of 2002 and is a founder member of the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan.

Campaigners are concerned that instead of increasing citizen’s powers to hold elected representatives, police and judiciary to account, the bill concentrates power in the hands of state authorities. 

“The Bill gives sweeping powers to state agencies,” explains Razia Patel of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan ”It will depend on sole discretion of state governments to declare a particular area “communally disturbed”, upon which various provisions of the Act will apply.”

In states which regularly witness communal violence or frequent targeting of one particular community, the fear is that authorities can be selective in declaring these areas setting the scene for large-scale harassment and human rights violations.

“There are numerous eye witness accounts of how marauders were supported by policemen and other state actors in Gujarat. We need to guard against such complicity by empowering people to deal with communal strife,” says Patel.

Campaigners say the real problem is not lack of laws but the political will to implement the existing laws.

“We have sufficient laws to circumvent an outburst of communal nature, all we need is a political will to act”, says Jowhar.

”The problem with Gujarat in 2002, Delhi in 1984, Bhagalpur in 1989 or Mumbai in 1992-93, was not that the state lacked the powers to act, but that it lacked the will to act, or worse that its will was for the communal violence to continue,” she adds.

SriKrishna and Jagmohan Reddy Commissions have shown that State and Central governments have failed to enforce existing laws to restore law and order when communal violence breaks out.

Under existing law, arms can be banned, routes of processions regulated, armed forces called and to assist civil administration and special courts established. 

Under the Communal Violence Bill, Central government’s power to deploy armed forces to curb violence in disturbed areas is negated by the fact that prior permission would need to be granted by the state. Activists point out that this is particularly worrying when, as witnessed in past incidents, state governments may be party to the problem.

Another concern is that the Bill fails to address the issue of mass sexual violence during communal outburst.

“All that women survivors of communal sexual violence have as recourse is the much maligned rape law – Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code - whose evidence requirements are difficult to meet even in peace time and impossible in a situation of violent communal conflict,” says Naish Hasan of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan.

Peace activist Noorjehan Diwan points to way forward:

“It will do more good if government supports citizen’s initiatives of building trust and harmony.”

Noorjehan is part of the Aman Samuday network of peace activists in Gujarat who are responding promptly to outbursts of violence in Muslim and Hindu neighbourhoods and are committed to bringing together the divided communities.

Notes to editor

Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, launched in January 2007, is a collective of Muslim women from across India. It is a mass membership organization with an Advisory Council. Membership is open to women from all communities but at any given point the Muslim women will constitute at least 70 per cent.

The Aman Samudaya (peace collective) was set up by ActionAid in the wake of the 2002 Gujarat riots providing immediate relief to riot victims and undertaking long term peace building work with Hindu and Muslim communities.