Tuesday, January 17, 2006
TNN report on ‘Communal violence bill panned by experts’ dated 24/11/2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005
The Editor, The Times of India, Mumbai
RE: TNN report on ‘Communal violence bill panned by experts’ dated 24/11/2005
UPA government’s proposed Communal Violence (Suppression) Bill, 2005, suffers from the basic premise that bureaucratic measures and political constraint are more sacrosanct than life and properties of innocent citizens. In view of the change in world-view on the nature of violence that can trigger chain reactions and involve larger and larger comity of people at both local, national and international level, an India, at the threshold of globalised opening to the world, should boldly bring up all its legislative, executive and judicial current maximums to the level, where safety, security and dignity of human life take absolute priority over all other governance constraints. After Bosnia, Rwanda genocidal holocausts, when international community had to take recourse to disregard even UN reluctance and impotency as well as the sovereignty of UN member countries, and now even preparing itself for ‘preventive strikes’, India government’s tame effort to manicure the old measures with barest of bare makeover, does not bode well for the future of the nation.
While at the one hand, India is poised for great leap forward through Manmohanomics; its venerability to internal and external elements that can destabilize the nation and thwart its progress cannot be overstated. UPA government must go for bold measures with the right perspectives guiding it, rather than pandering to politics of its own or its local competition. It must take lessons from international consensus on Human Rights and draw up measures on war footings to prevent communal violence, which is nothing but serialized genocide.
GHULAM MUHAMMED, MUMBAI
The Editor, The Times of India, Mumbai
RE: TNN report on ‘Communal violence bill panned by experts’ dated 24/11/2005
UPA government’s proposed Communal Violence (Suppression) Bill, 2005, suffers from the basic premise that bureaucratic measures and political constraint are more sacrosanct than life and properties of innocent citizens. In view of the change in world-view on the nature of violence that can trigger chain reactions and involve larger and larger comity of people at both local, national and international level, an India, at the threshold of globalised opening to the world, should boldly bring up all its legislative, executive and judicial current maximums to the level, where safety, security and dignity of human life take absolute priority over all other governance constraints. After Bosnia, Rwanda genocidal holocausts, when international community had to take recourse to disregard even UN reluctance and impotency as well as the sovereignty of UN member countries, and now even preparing itself for ‘preventive strikes’, India government’s tame effort to manicure the old measures with barest of bare makeover, does not bode well for the future of the nation.
While at the one hand, India is poised for great leap forward through Manmohanomics; its venerability to internal and external elements that can destabilize the nation and thwart its progress cannot be overstated. UPA government must go for bold measures with the right perspectives guiding it, rather than pandering to politics of its own or its local competition. It must take lessons from international consensus on Human Rights and draw up measures on war footings to prevent communal violence, which is nothing but serialized genocide.
GHULAM MUHAMMED, MUMBAI
