MVA Delegation Urges Governor CP Radhakrishnan To Reject Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, Calls It Oppressive And Ambiguous

Mumbai: A delegation from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP, met Governor CP Radhakrishnan on Friday and submitted a letter opposing the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill 2024, calling it oppressive, ambiguous and prone to misuse.

“The state government is trying to legitimise extraordinary executive powers under the guise of public security,” the leaders told the government and added that even as some changes have been made following discussions in the joint select committee, provisions in the bill were oppressive and open to misuse. “The government has ignored some crucial points raised by us,” the delegation told the governor.

Two separate memorandums were submitted to the governor – a joint one signed by three party leaders and one by the Congress leaders. The 4-page Congress memorandum speaks on different clauses which, according to them, are ambiguous, broad and open to abuse.

It further says, “Concerns over the bill have been raised by constitutional experts as well as civil society. The provisions of the bill are an attempt to criminalise opposition as extremism”.

The 2-page joint memorandum by the MVA says out of 12,500 objections received by the joint select committee, 9,000 were against the bill demanding the scrapping of it.

“A public hearing should have been held by the government over these objections. Given the public outrage, the bill should not be approved and instead referred back to the government,” the governor has been urged.

The memorandum also criticises Section 2(f) of the Bill for defining unlawful acts in overly broad terms that include speech, signs, gestures, and fundraising, even when such acts only tend to interfere with public order or cause concern.