Copycat makes Cong cry wolf

UP religious building las is same as an act introduced by Arjun in MP

THE PUBLIC Religious Building and Properties Regulations Act, enacted a fortnight ago by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, is an outright copy of the Public Building and Places Regulation Act, enacted by the Congress government of Arjun Singh in Madhya Pradesh in 1984.

Yet, the Congress, which had once hailed the MP law as secular and progressive, had condemned the UP law as communal and reactionary. Both the Acts are one and the same, the only difference being that while in MP it was enacted by a Congress government; in UP it has been adopted by the BJP.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had herself condemned the UP bill during her visit to the state on January 17, asserting that her party would launch an agitation against the bill which "violates the fundamental rights of the people."

Strangely enough, among the Congressmen who have attacked the UP law is Arjun Singh himself, though it was during his chief ministership that MP became the first state in India to enact a legislation prohibiting construction of public religious places without prior executive sanction. Another Congress leader who has assailed the UP law is AICC spokesman Alit Jogi, who was at the time a district magistrate in the state and as such must have been very well aware of the State law.

The MP Act has the title in Hindi and so does the UP one. The first was called Madhya Pradesh Sarvjanik Bhawan Tatha Sthan Viniyaman Adhiniyam, 1984. Published in MP Rajpatra (Asadharan) dated June 26, 1984 on pages 1739-42, the law came into force on November 1, 1984 vide Notification No. F-9-3 IV-84 dated October 19,1984. The second is called the UP Sarvjanik Dharmik Bhavanon aur Sthalon ka Vlniyaman Adhinlyam, 2000, and is yet in be gazetted and notified.

The stated object of the MP law was to "regulate the construction of public religious buildings and restrict the use of public places for religious purposes with a view to avoid breach of public peace.

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