Dabholkar's followers bat for national law against black magic

Meets leaders of national and regional parties

The followers of murdered rationalist Narendra Dabholkar have launched a drive for a national law to prevent and eradicate black magic on the lines of the Maharashtra Act.

Members of the Committee for Eradication of Blind Faith, which was formed by Dabholkar in 1989, held a series of meetings in New Delhi early this week with the leaders of national and regional parties, emphasising the need for a national law. The Committee’s move comes close on the heels of a campaign stepped up by pro-Hindutva organisations against the law.

Hamid Dabholkar, Dabholkar’s son told Business Standard : “Representatives of the Committee for Eradication of Blind Faith met Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party’s former president Nitin Gadkari, leaders of Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan. They made a strong plea that a national law be enacted, especially when the practices of blind faith and superstitions are promoted and practised by Babas and their ilk.”

Some of these practices are the ones in which magical rites are performed in the name of supernatural power.”

The Maharashtra government had promulgated an ordinance on August 24 for the prevention and eradication of black magic after Dr Dabholkar's assassination. The new law bans inhuman practices, human sacrifice, rituals to enable sex selection by pregnant women, and all forms of acts known as Jaadu-Tona in common parlance.

The Ordinance has replaced the draft ‘Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Bill 2011’, known simply as the ‘anti-Black Magic Bill’, pending before the legislature.

Further, the Committee wants other state governments to emulate the Maharashtra government to curb the flourishing trade in blind faith and black magic.

The Committee's move is crucial as Pune police have yet to nab the assailants of Dr Dabholkar who was murdered on August 20 in Pune. Despite repeated announcements by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, home minister R R Patil, there has been no substantial progress in this regard. Representatives of the Committee met Chavan last week and made a fresh plea to arrest the killers at the earliest.