Bajrang Dal sees a design

BHUBANESWAR: The Bajrang Dal on Saturday accused the UPA Government of trying to create communal divide by proposing a legislation to make provisions for punishment for communal violence against the minority communities. Describing the draft ‘Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Regulation) Bill, 2011,’ as ‘draconian’, Bajrang Dal national convener Subash Chouhan said it was a deep-rooted  conspiracy by international forces against Hindu society. Alleging that the draft Bill was cleared by the National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi at the direction of foreign  powers, Chouhan said the aim of the Bill was to target the Hindu society, its organisations and leaders. ‘’The timing of making the draft Bill public is very important. It was made public only after a few days of putting India on the watch list by some US-based organisations which are actively patronising proselytisation of Hindus,’’ he remarked.  While these foreign organisations are talking about Gujarat and Orissa episodes, Chouhan said, they are conveniently overlooking the miseries of Kashmiri Hindus and those in Tripura and Manipur. The Bajrang Dal leader alleged that once the Bill was enacted, it would interfere in the working of state governments and pose a threat to the federal polity of the country. “If a worker of a particular organisation is an accused in the communal violence case, then the head of that organisation will be held responsible. This law would have provision to punish the leaders even without any fault of his,” Chouhan pointed out. He said the Central government will be able to use provisions of the proposed law to settle scores with chief ministers for mistakes committed by any employee of the state government, he said. If the Bill comes into force, the Centre would usurp the power of the state government on flimsy grounds, he feared. Bajrang Dal will strongly oppose the Bill and launch a countrywide campaign against it, he said.