Ordinance on Dalit protection lapses

Even as the Modi government has sought to appropriate Ambedkar’s legacy at the start of the 125th birth anniversary of the architect of the Indian Constitution, it has been strangely neglectful of the well-being of the community that he represented, the Scheduled Castes.

Indeed, even though the government has shown a fondness for ruling by ordinance, the only ordinance that it has allowed to lapse is the one that relates to enforcing accountability on public servants who “wilfully neglect” duties on matters relating to atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Tribes.

Indeed, 11 months ago when the BJP-led NDA government came to power, it inherited two ordinances from the previous Congress-led UPA government — The Securities Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 and The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Ordinance, 2014, promulgated on March 28 and March 4 respectively last year.

On assuming charge, the Modi government, in its first Budget session in 2014 swiftly converted the Securities Ordinance into an Act of Parliament on August 12, 2014, an amendment to further “protect the interests of investors and to ensure orderly development of securities markets.”

But the ordinance that was intended to strengthen the machinery to prevent atrocities against SCs and STs was allowed to lapse even though there were strong protests by the Opposition.

Instead, it was sent to the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, headed by BJP MP Ramesh Bais: the report was submitted on December 19, 2014. And the Bill has been pending since, even though in January 2015, after the winter session ended, the Modi government had a slew of ordinances promulgated.

In the first half of the Budget Session that followed, the government’s parliamentary managers used all their diplomacy to get five of six ordinances converted into Acts of Parliament. And this was managed, despite a largely uncooperative opposition in the Rajya Sabha, where the government is outnumbered

Source : The Hindu dt 15-4-15