Chief minister Pawan Chamling today defended the Public Order Bill

 Bill return on Chamling lips

Gangtok, Aug. 30: Chief minister Pawan Chamling today defended the Public Order Bill and said he would reintroduce it in the Assembly with “the consent of the people”.

The announcement came four days after the government withdrew the Sikkim Prevention and Control of Disturbance of Public Order Bill from the Assembly following protest from Opposition parties and citizen forums.

The Opposition parties took out rallies and burnt the chief minister’s effigy to protest against the “black bill”.

Chamling had tabled the bill in the Assembly in his capacity as home minister on August 11.

The bill had sought, among other things, to restrict demonstrations, hunger strikes and waving of black flags to “preserve public order”.

Today, the chief minister told the Assembly that the bill had been withdrawn so that the people got enough time to understand it.

“We will go to the people, take permission from them and reintroduce it in the Assembly later,” Chamling said while proposing a vote of thanks in the valedictory session of the Assembly.

Although Chamling did not explain how his government planned to get the “consent of the people”, sources in the Sikkim Democratic Front said pamphlets listing the virtues of the bill had already been distributed across the state.

The party also wants to use its frontal organisations to “convince” the people about the merits of the bill, said the sources.

All 32 members in the Assembly belong to the SDF.

Chamling took a dig at the opposition for resisting the bill and accused them of misleading the people.

“The bill was in favour of the people and there were attempts to mislead them. The bill sought to prevent hatred among different communities and religions and protect peace. The bill does not seek to prevent freedom of expression granted by the Indian Constitution but seeks to support it. The bill does not say that people cannot protest against the government, it merely states that people cannot spread hatred among communities,” he said.

The chief minister also said the people could not enjoy their fundamental rights if there was anarchy and disharmony in the state.

“One of the purposes of the bill was to launch a crackdown on drug peddlers to make Sikkim a drug-free state. What do they (Opposition) want? Drug abuse, disharmony and disturbance? They oppose anything just for the sake of being in Opposition,” he said.

The chief minister’s statement in the Assembly invited angry responses from the SDF’s rivals.

“What he said today proves that he is an unreliable person. We will approach the governor and seek his intervention to block the reintroduction of the bill,” said Nima Lepcha, the acting president of the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee.

Governor Balmiki Prasad Singh had advised the state government to drop the bill. The governor’s advice followed Opposition parties’ boycott of a tea party hosted by him at Raj Bhavan on Independence Day.

The state BJP president, Padam Chhetri, said the SDF was distributing pamphlets extolling the virtues of the bill “without the contents that had been met with strong opposition”.

-TT