The UPA government declared in its Common Minimum Programme that it will enact a law against communal violence. This move is long overdue. However, the intended scope of the proposed legislation seems limited to “providing for investigations by a central agency, prosecution by special courts and payment of uniform compensation”. No mention has been made of any preventive measures in the law. It seems that those who have drafted the CMP have failed to take into consideration the fact that instances of communal violence are only the by-product of organised attempts of communal forces to promote religious animosity between members of the majority and minority communities. Incidents of communal violence in the past reveal a clear pattern wherein conscious efforts were made by fundamentalist elements to sow the seeds of hatred in the minds of sections of the majority community.Take the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. It followed on the heels of the VHP’s Ramjanambhoomi campaign and L.K. Advani’s Somnath Rath Yatra. The communal violence that followed was due to the divisions created in the minds of sections of the Hindu and Muslim communities. The ten-day spate of anti-Christian violence in the Dangs district in Gujarat from December 25 1998 to January 3 1999 was preceded by the distribution of pamphlets containing anti-Christian propaganda and a rally where provocative speeches were made against Christian tribals by the Hindu Jagran Manch. Even the Wadhwa Commission Report, which probed the murder of Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa, stated that “misplaced fundamentalism” was the main reason behind the extreme act of hate. Although Dara Singh’s “official” link with the Bajrang Dal could not be traced, it was evident that he was associated with the parivar’s ‘‘activists’’. Likewise, the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002 broke out after the deaths at Godhra were used to rake up communal fervour.Organisations of the sangh parivar have long been sowing the seeds for communal violence by distributing trishuls and pamphlets and delivering venomous speeches in public functions, in blatant violation of Sections 153, 153(A), 295, and 505 of the Indian Penal Code which deal with the promotion of religious animosity. In the last six years of the BJP’s tenure at the Centre, the parivar has successfully made the poisonous Hindutva ideology a part of the “common sense” of sections of the majority community. The UPA government should wake up to the situation, which calls for a holistic approach to combat communalism. It should either add preventive measures in the proposed law against communal violence or ensure the strict implementation of existing provisions in the IPC against the spread of communal hatred, or both. Anything less would be a betrayal of the clear mandate given by the electorate to restore communal harmony.
