Dr. John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council, Government of India and Secretary General, All India Christian Council, held a press conference in Udaipur today in relation to implementation of The Communal Violence Prevention Bill prepared by the National Advisory Council. In Photo: Dr John Dayal sitting in extreme left The All India Christian Council calls upon the government to introduce the communal violence prevention bill prepared by the National Advisory Council (NAC) in the Parliament soon after making necessary changes so that it does not infringe on the federal structure of India. “The bill is not against any majority community as alleged by Bhartiya Janta party, instead it gives a sense and security to minority communities in several states who have been subjected to targeted violence in the country in recent years”, says Dr. Dayal. While narrating the past incidents of communal riots in India Dr Dayal said, “In the last ten years, there have been more than 6,000 cases. Among the worst were the anti Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 and the violence against the Christians in 2008 in Kandhamal district of Orissa.” “Existing laws have failed to stop the violence and again and again have failed to bring justice and proper rehabilitation of the victims”, he uttered. In response to one of the senior BJP leaders who claimed that such law will be offensive to the Hindus, Dr. Dayal expressed that, “99.9% of Hindus in India are peaceful and harmonious. I am not talking about only the Christians and the Muslim minorities but there are 7 Indian states where Hindus are considered as minorities including Kashmir and eastern states of India, this law will ensure their safety too.” Dr. John Dayal told reporters that, “We fully support the need to end impunity of government staff and to hold officers responsible for the dereliction of duty. Similarly, we support provisions to end hate campaigns. District and state officers must be empowered to act in time to check the spread of hatred by political and anti social elements.” Lastly he added saying that, “More alarming are instances where villages have socially ostracized the Christian tribals and dalits. The Christian tribal are denied scheduled caste rights guaranteed under the constitution. We hope the state government and district authorities will take appropriate action to end such activities that spread hatred and targeted violence.”