Chennai, Aug 1 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Monday urged ‘right thinking MPs’ to dump a proposed bill that ostensibly seeks to curb communal violence.
The Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence bill ‘is another blatant attempt by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to concentrate powers at the centre bypassing the state governments’, she said.
‘I have also written to all non-Congress chief ministers requesting them to oppose this bill,’ she said.
She appealed to all ‘right-thinking political parties and MPs’ to look at the real intentions of the UPA government in piloting this bill, and unite in throwing this bill out at the introduction stage itself.
She said the bill can be used by New Delhi to dismiss any state government.
‘If this bill becomes law, one could well have a situation where members of political parties in power at the centre could conspire to create a volatile situation in a state that is governed by an opposition party,’ she said.
‘If the agitators are put down, the state government concerned would be pilloried for stifling dissent.
‘On the other hand, if violence erupts, it can be dubbed as communal and/or targeted violence and the state government concerned can be dismissed using the sweeping and wholly subjective provisions of the law,’ she added.
She said the purpose of the proposed law was unstated. Many offences to be covered by the proposed law have been left to subjective interpretation of the authorities and were open to gross misuse.
