SM Fasiullah for BeyondHeadlines
Noted civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad is hell-bent on pushing the cause of communal harmony, protection and security for disadvantaged citizens, who had been targeted in mass violence in India.
She has been pressing the government, through various means and platforms, to table the “Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice & Reparations) Bill” in Rajya Sabha.
She filed an online petition kicking off a mass signature campaign seeking public vote to press the government for tabling PCTVB in the Parliament expeditiously. “SAY NO to Violence, YES to Justice and Peace” is her clarion call.
Ms. Setalvad, who’s fighting Gujarat Riots-2002 victim Zakai Jafri’s case in the Supreme Court, wants the government to ensure specific group of citizens are not targeted and their life and properties are not damaged in mass violence.
She reminds that the Congress-led UPA-I has not fulfilled its promise made after Gujarat Massacre in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP).
The UPA-I had assured minorities, after Gujarat Pogrom, of a special law and well-defined crimes to ensure that the perpetrators of mass and targeted violence are punished and fair reparations are made mandatory.
In June 2011, the National Advisory Council (NAC) drafted PCTVB with the aim of tackling communal and targeted violence in the country and delivering justice and compensation to victims.
In her petition, Ms. Teesta said the bill is needed to protect disadvantaged citizens who were targeted in mass violence during which bouts and officers of the state had shown overt to covert complicity.
She added that the bill is also required “to breathe life into Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution (Right to Life and Right to Equality Before the Law).”
The bill would help in enabling law to ensure that the culture of inaction, complicity and absence of accountability during violence does not go unnoticed. PCTVB would add, for the first time, offences by public servants or other superiors for breach of command responsibility.
In addition, the bill also envisages the creation of a National Authority for Communal Harmony, Justice and Reparation – which would serve as a catalyst for implementation of the new law.
