BJP attacks Cong over Communal Bill

The BJP on Saturday criticised the Congress over the Anti-Communal Violence Bill, which is likely to be introduced during the winter session of Parliament.

Alleging that the bill is an attack on a state’s rights, senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, ‘In May, there was a chief ministers meet, and at that time, at least 10 to 12 states had expressed their reservations over the Anti-Communal Violence Bill.

The government should understand that the people of this country reject the bill, which they are using as a vote attracting gimmick, and, to divert the attention from the main issues of price rice, corruption, Naxalism and border tensions etc. Even the states and the regional parties have rejected such a bill.’

Prime minister  Manmohan Singh on Friday had defended the Anti-Communal Violence Bill, saying, ‘It is not a vote catching gimmick. I think in the last five or six years, we have been grappling with the problem of communal riots in some or the other part of the country and, our effort has been to create an environment where officials who have the responsibility to look at the law and order situation work as effectively as is humanly possible.’

‘Also, if riots cannot be prevented, then there should be adequate compensation for the victims of the riots. So, these are the two big principles, which underline what is the purpose of the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill,’ Singh had said at a summit in New Delhi.