FIle photo: Narendra Modi at an election rally in Jammu. (AFP)
Narendra Modi has written to Chief Ministers urging them to oppose the Centre's Bill to check communal violence, on a day the Prime Minister rebutted his criticism and asserted that the proposed law was not a "vote-catching gimmick."
"It is important for all chief ministers to rise beyond political affiliations and come together to oppose the Bill, which is nothing but a blatant attempt by the Centre to interfere with the powers of state governments," Mr Modi, who is running for Prime Minister, appealed to chief ministers including Maharashtra's Prithivraj Chavan, who belongs to the Congress.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended the Bill, saying it would "help control aberrations created by communal strife."
Dr Singh was reacting to the Gujarat Chief Minister's letter to him, which described the Bill as a "recipe for disaster". Mr Modi's BJP alleges that the Bill is being rushed by a government motivated by vote-bank politics ahead of the national election due by May.
A revised version of the bill, circulated among parties, no longer assumes that only a member of a minority group can be the victim of communal violence, a provision that the BJP had opposed strongly, saying it was biased against one community.
The Bill had been opposed by states who called it an infringement on their rights, as it allows the Centre to directly intervene in riot-hit areas. Many regional parties say even the new version of the Bill impedes the right of state governments to maintain law and order.
After Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and Mr Modi, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has also written to the Prime Minister opposing the anti-communal violence Bill.
The government plans to introduce the Bill in this session of parliament, which ends on December 20 and is seen as the last window to push through important legislation before the general election.