New Delhi, December 5
With Opposition parties strongly voicing dissent to the Centre’s move to bring Anti-Communal Violence Bill, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured them that there would a broad-based consensus on the proposed legislation. “The Government will try to arrive at a consensus and seek support of all parties on all controversial issues,” the PM said in response to the objections raised by several chief ministers, including Narendra Modi, on the contentious legislation.

Seeking cooperation of Opposition parties in ensuring the smooth functioning of Parliament, he further said: “This session of Parliament is of short duration. Hence, it is obligatory on all parties to get essential business transacted as speedily and smoothly as possible.”

The appeal came shortly after various political parties condemned the move to introduce the Anti-Communal Violence Bill in the winter session of Parliament that started today. The BJP, which already has made clear its vehement opposition to the legislation that the Congress-led UPA is pushing for, today further upped its ante.

The saffron party’s PM candidate Narendra Modi wrote to the PM, calling the proposed legislation an “ill-conceived, poorly drafted recipe for disaster”. Questioning the timing and terming the Bill an attempt to encroach upon the domain of states, he called for wider consultations among stakeholders - state governments, political parties, police and security agencies.

“The Communal Violence Bill is ill-conceived, poorly drafted and a recipe for disaster,” the Gujarat CM said, joining his West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha counterparts, who have opposed the proposed Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2013, calling it a violation of India’s federal structure.

Modi called the timing of the Bill “suspicious owing to political considerations and vote bank politics, rather than genuine concerns”. “Religious and linguistic identities would become more reinforced and even ordinary incidents of violence would be given a communal colour, thus giving the opposite result of what the bill intends to achieve,” he said.