DMs can now ban RSS shakhas

[Guest guest]

Krishen Kak <krishkak@d...> wrote:

The Pioneer, May 6, 2005

 

DMs can now ban RSS shakhas

Rana Ajit/ New Delhi

 

The Congress-led UPA government is on the verge of arming

itself with a law to ban the activities of Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh

and Vishwa Hindu Parishad at local levels.

 

 

With the BJP-led Opposition staying away from Parliament, the

Government on Wednesday quietly passed the Criminal Law Amendment

Bill of 1994-vintage in the Rajya Sabha, which seeks to rein in

organisations like RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal and ban their lathi-

wielding kawayads or trident-flashing processions.

 

Slated to be passed by the Lok Sabha next week, the bill would

inadvertently put even the religious processions of sword or kirpan-

weilding Sikhs as well within the ambit of a district magistrate's

whims and fancies.

 

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 1994, seeks to

empower district magistrates to ban "the carrying of arms in any

procession or organising, or holding of, or taking part in any mass

drill or mass training in any public place." The Government seeks to

give this power to districts magistrates by inserting a clause 144A

in the CrPC after its existing clause 144, which deals with powers of

district magistrates in "urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended

danger." If the bare reading of the newly-inserted section 144A

leaves any doubt over the government's real intention behind

incorporating this change in the CRPC, the note on clauses of the

bill makes it more revealing.

 

The note on insertion of section 144A in CrPC as drafted under the

guidance of former Union Home Minister S B Chavan ,in 1994 ,and now

endorsed by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, reads "In order to

curb the militant activities of certain communal organizations, a

need has been felt to strengthen the hands of State authorities for

effectively checking the communal tension and foster a sense of

complete security in the minds of members of the public. This clause,

therefore, seeks to insert a new section 144 A in the Code to enable

district magistrates to prohibit mass drill (or training) with arms

in public places."

 

And as per the section 153 AA of the Indian Penal Code, which defines

arms for the purpose of the newly-inserted section 144A of the CrPC,

arms include lathies as well as other sharp-edged weapons like

trishuls (tridents) and swords. With lathis and trishuls defined as

arms, and government seeking to ban drill of communal organisation

through this bill, it could be any body's guess as to who would come

under the ambit of this bill.

 

The Bill also seeks to empower district magistrates to ban activities

of "communal organisations" (read RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal), for

three to six months.

 

What subjects even the Sikhs' religious processions too, to the whims

and fancies of a district magistrate, is the fact that the newly

introduced section 144A of CrPC empowers magistrates to ban carrying

of arms in any procession"...., "whenever he (the DM) considers it

necessary to do so for the preservation of public peace ,or public

safety, or for the maintenance of public order." And there is no

guarantee in the bill that dislocation of traffic due to a procession

would not be described as a disruption of public order.

 

 

 

--- End forwarded message ---