New Delhi: A new section to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to tackle racial violence and any criminal act in the name of religion, race or language may finally be added.
Minister of state for home, Kiren Rijiju, told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that the opinion of states has been sought on the proposed changes in the IPC, and seven states and Union Territories had given a positive feedback.
Majority opinion is required to make the amendments, which will help the local police to deal with such incidents. The move follows several incidents over the past few years of brutal attacks and racial slurs against students from the Northeast and Africa. Officials said that mob lynching by cow vigilantes in the name of religion or race would be covered under the proposed sections.
Mr Rijiju said that the proposal is to include two new Sections in the IPC — 153C and 509A — which would deal with any criminal act on the basis of religion, race, residence or language.
This recommendation had been made by the Bezbaruah Committee to effectively deal with racial incidents, including words, gestures or acts intended to insult a member of a particular racial group or race.
Speaking in Rajya Sabha during Question Hour, Mr Rijiju recalled a recent incident at Delhi Golf Club where a woman was asked to leave the premises on account of her dress.
Describing the incident as serious, he said penal action had been hampered in absence of any formal complaint. This is not the first time that the BJP-led NDA government is talking of a provision in the penal code to deal with racial attacks.
In December 2014, Mr Rijiju had said that the Centre would move amendments to IPC and the CrPC during the 2015 Budget session to deal more sternly with racial attacks against people from Northeast.
“The law is not elaborate on racial attacks. We felt there is no need to make a new law, but existing laws should be amended to include some words and phrases to check racial attacks,” Mr Rijiju had said then.
In March this year, following attacks on several Nigerian nationals in Noida and elsewhere, there was again demand for a provision in law to tackle racial incidents.
African diplomats in India had then issued a joint statement expressing their anger at Delhi for not sufficiently condemning the “xenophobic and racist” attacks on Africans.
Last week, the Opposition had asked the government to consider a new law to tackle mob violence in the name of cow protection. To this, minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir had said, “Whether a murder has been committed by one person or by a group of ten people, there are adequate provisions in law to deal with such situations. State governments are empowered to implement these laws. I don’t think we need to bring in any new law or amend any existing law.”
On Wednesday, Mr Rijiju, dismissing Opposition’s allegations that incidents of mass lynching had increased sharply under the present government, said the government had initiated unprecedented steps to ensure the security of all citizens, including an advisory to all states to ensure safety of students from Kashmir.
He also claimed it was wrong to say that mob lynchings were a new phenomenon as past records shows that Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana were among the top states where communal clashes took place.
