While we have laws to offer protection to every vulnerable section of our society (women, children, workers and for specific marginalized groups), Mihir Desai and Titoo Ahluwalia (of Citizens for Peace) argue we need special legislation to protect those who are left out- victims of sectarian violence:

We need only look at the Srikrishna Commission Report, and similar earlier reports over the past 40 years, to realize a simple truth about such violence. It could never have happened without the active connivance of the State and its various wings, including the police, executive and, most important the politicians at the helm of affairs. None of these people have ever been brought to justice.

Yet what’s more worrying is that our existing legislative framework doesn’t even give us an adequate mechanism to successfully prosecute them. Under our laws, these violent acts are seen as a collection of individual offences, and only those who were part of a mob are punished. Those who instigated the violence, allowed it to continue, neglected or abdicated their responsibilities — such people are hardly covered under the law. Yet we can effectively end this cycle of violence only if these bigger fish are brought under the umbrella of our penal laws.