Chouhan also writes to PM, slams Communal Violence Bill

After Narendra Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too has written to the Prime Minister, expressing strong reservations about the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill.
"I am constrained to say at the outset that the Bill not only attempts to abrogate and usurp the legislative powers of the state governments as guaranteed by our Constitution, but also tries to trample upon the basic tenets of criminal jurisprudence," Chouhan said in a letter to Manmohan Singh today.
Certain provisions seem to be based on a dangerous assumption that the law enforcing functionaries and other instrumentalities of the state are automatically colluders in the perpetuation of communal violence, he said.

Of late the Centre was framing laws on the state subjects, the letter said, citing the example of 'The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013'.
"If this trend continues it will seriously undermine the principle of federalism which is a basic pillar of the Constitution and is sacrosanct and inviolable. The Constitution of India puts public order in the state list," the Chief Minister said.
Terming the Bill as "regressive, vague and runs counter to the spirit of the Constitution of India," Chouhan said in the letter: "We are fully committed to stamping out communal violence, but we do not feel that this Bill is designed to achieve this objective, and would in fact create more difficulties that it would serve."

Modi, in his letter to the Prime Minister yesterday, had called the bill "a recipe for disaster".