Anti-terror laws to be strengthened, but not return of POTA,Indian Politics, News Analysis, India News Online

Even while facing flak from the Opposition for allegedly being soft on terrorism, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, UPA, Government at the Centre has ruled out the revival of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, POTA. But at the same time, the Government has said that it will consider strengthening the existing anti-terror laws.

Speaking to mediapersons on Thursday, Sept. 18, after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, Minister for Information and Broad¬casting Priyaranjan Das Munshi said that if the present laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act are carried out properly, there would be no need for additional laws. Ruling out bringing back POTA or introduction of any additional law to combat terror he said: “POTA is a draconian law and against human rights.” Asked whether there was a plan to bring in an anti- -terror law similar to POTA, Das Munshi said: “What do you mean by tougher anti-terror law? Some of our laws are much stronger than those in the United States and Britain.”

Reports about the Centre bringing in a tougher anti-terror law on the lines of POTA had gained ground after the Administra¬tive Reforms Commission headed by former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerappa Moily recently recommended anti-terror provisions simi¬lar to those in POTA, which was enacted by the previous BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, NDA Government and repealed after the UPA came to power in the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

The ARC recommendation had not gone down too well with sections in the government. Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had expressed reservations about portions of the report. He had argued that even with laws like POTA, the conviction rate of people brought to book for terrorist activities was less than 0.5 per cent.

Steps to fight terror

While ruling out the return of POTA or a POTA-type law, which presumes that suspects are guilty till proved innocent, the Union Cabinet decided upon several measures to fight terror, in the wake of terrorist incidents in different parts of the coun¬try, of which the last one was the bomb blasts in different areas of the National Capital Delhi on Saturday, September 13. The measures include beefing up of the intelligence network in the country by providing more personnel to the Intelligence Bureau and by the setting up of a specialised research wing in the intelligence agency.

The Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act is to be modified to define terrorism as a federal crime. This will clear the way for central agencies to probe terrorist incidents any¬where unhindered by the constitutional provisions where the responsibility of maintaining law and order falls in the domain of the states.

Reports say that the bail provision will be made tougher and police may be allowed to keep accused in detention for a longer period. The Explosives Act will be amended to bring the sale and distribution of ammonium nitrate, which has been used frequently by terrorists to make explosives, within the ambit of the law.

The strength of the Intelligence Bureau will be increased from the existing 25,000 to 31,000 personnel. The Cabinet also approved mega city policing plans for Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Chennai. An additional 7,600 posts have been sanctioned for Delhi Police. Other states will be asked to increase the strength of the police force on priority.

Close circuit television sets, CCTV, will be installed in 58 markets in Delhi. All States and Union Territories will be asked to adopt similar measures immediately.

To guard against misuse of anti-terror laws, there will be a provision for screening by a monitoring committee.

Communal violence as big a threat as terror

Recognizing that communal violence is as big a threat to the country as terrorism, the Prime Minister’s Office has reportedly asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to strengthen the law to effectively deal with communal violence. A senior functionary, who did want to be named said: “with more and more incidents of communal violence being reported almost on a daily basis, the PMO wants stronger laws to deal with communal violence.” The Centre is also reportedly of the view that different states should not have their own anti-terror laws. The framework law enacted by the Centre should suffice.

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Divisions in ruling polity on tougher anti-terror law

There are reports that diverse views were expressed at the Union Cabinet meeting on the legislative framework to tackle terrorist activities and elements. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had earlier said that the government is open to strengthen anti-terror laws faced some dissent with a number of ministers virtually stone-walling the move to beef up the anti-terror laws. Priyaranjan Das Munshi and some other ministers said that the country already has tougher provisions than those in the United States and Britain to tackle terror. The objective was to blunt the BJP’s accusation that the Centre and the Congress were soft on terror.

Sources said the majority view at the meeting, called to review the Delhi blasts and its aftermath, was that there was no need to “sneak in” a version of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) by amending existing laws.

Muslims, some Ministers said, remember the Act as a “bad dream” and in the run-up to the elections, any suggestion of reviving it would be “suicidal”.

Congress ministers rejected Agriculture Minister and Nation¬alist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s suggestion to hasten presidential assent to the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act.

“We can’t clear such laws. We went to the elections promis¬ing POTA’s repeal. We fulfilled it. Now we can’t bring back POTA and hand it on a platter to Narendra Modi,” a source quoted a minister as saying.

The UPA has been sitting on the Gujarat law, prompting Chief Minister Narendra Modi to accuse the Centre after the Ahmedabad blasts of scuppering his anti-terror measures.

Another Minister pointed out that the Congress had allowed the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act to continue, but was told the NDA government had facilitated its passage.

It was explained that the Centre couldn’t ask the Maharash¬tra Assembly to repeal the law and even if the Congress wanted it abolished, it couldn’t as the NCP, with whom the party shares power, was said to favour such a “tough” law.

The confusion in the Congress on stronger anti-terror laws also came through in the way some leaders reacted to the Prime Minister’s remarks at a Governors’ conference last week. Dr. Singh had said the Centre was “actively considering legislation to further strengthen the substantive anti-terrorism law in line with the global consensus” to fight terrorism.

But the phrase “global consensus”, some party leaders felt, risked being associated with George W. Bush’s “cowboy” brand of politics against “Islamic terrorism” after 9/11.

National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan briefed the min¬isters on “home-grown terrorism”, as distinct from “cross-border terrorism”, and claimed that some local militants owed “alle¬giance” to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Dr. Manmohan Singh called for caution in dealing with local terror operatives, saying there should be no attempt to tar any community. “The perspective should begin and end with the of¬fender,” he was quoted as saying.

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Need to strengthen anti-terror laws : PM

Just a day before the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Manmo¬han Singh had hit out at the role of Pakistan-based terrorist groups in the recent serial bomb blasts in the country, but said that the involvement of local elements added a new dimension to the terrorist threat.

Favouring further strengthening of anti-terror laws, Dr. Singh noted that security and intelligence agencies had been successful in thwarting and pre-empting several terrorist at¬tacks. “But as the recent blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Surat and Delhi indicate, there are still vast gaps in intel¬ligence. These need to be overcome.”

The Prime Minister, addressing the Governors’ Conference on its concluding day, focussed on Left-wing extremism, terrorism and his government’s approach to tackling the menace.

The theme of internal security and terrorism also figured in President Pratibha Patil’s inaugural address on Tuesday, Septem¬ber 16. She voiced concern at the emerging “metro-terrorism” and favoured firm action against those who followed the path and culture of the gun.

Emphasising that there was no question of the government being soft on terrorism, Dr. Singh said the “issue is really one of examining the efficacy of the totality of the systems and the mechanisms that we have to deal with terrorist incidents.”

He said it was unfortunate that the public debate on terror¬ism tended to get driven by politics and centred on certain laws enacted or repealed by governments of different political persua¬sions. “Our government has no fixed, inflexible, or ideological view in this regard,” Dr. Singh said.

He said the government was considering legislation to fur¬ther strengthen the substantive anti-terrorism law in line with the global consensus on the fight against terrorism.

Shivraj Patil escapes sacking for the time being

While the Opposition BJP continues to demand Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s resignation or sacking for the spate of terrorist incidents in different parts of the country, it appears that Patil has managed to survive yet another challenge to his continuance in the Union Cabinet. Speaking to mediapersons after a three-hour-long meeting of senior leaders on September 17 at the Prime Minister’s residence, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the Union Cabinet “stands by” Patil who briefed it about the serial blasts rocking various metropolitan cities one after another for the last few months.

“The Home Minister has suggested measures which have been approved by the Cabinet,” said Mukherjee in his terse remarks after the meeting while refraining from spelling out details. “It was about streamlining our anti-terror systems,” said a Cabinet Minister. He said the Cabinet members expressed concern over the string of terrorist attacks in different parts of the country, but added that Patil’s functioning did not come under attack.

Patil’s handling of internal security, which has always faced criticism from various quarters for its ‘slackness and ineptitude”, especially drew fire after the Delhi blasts - in¬cluding from his own Congress colleagues, leave aside the Opposi¬tion BJP. RJD chief and Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who obliquely criticized his performance, had met the PM to demand a special Cabinet meeting.

Referring to the impeccable way in which Shivraj Patil dresses in public, changing three times a day if necessary, BJP spokeperson Ravi Shankar Prasad on September 15 demanded that Dr. Manmohan Singh should sack his Home Minister immediately. Prasad had just one question for Patil: “What is more important, the lives of people or your sartorial elegance?”

On Saturday, September 13, Patil had attended a lengthy Congress Working Committee meeting in a cream-coloured bandhgala. By the time he reached home and picked up a fresh bandhgala - a black one - the news of the blasts was all over TV screens.

A round of the explosion sites followed. A tired and worried Patil returned home and changed into a spotless white suit to accompany Sonia Gandhi to a city hospital.

Since then, the local media has ripped into Patil, leaving him “depressed”, an aide said.

The Home Minister’s associates say Patil has always taken extreme care of his appearance since he was an adolescent of 14, and changed each time he stepped out of home. So on Saturday, he was merely following the routine of a lifetime.

While the Congress leadership continues to defend Home Minister Shivraj Patil, reports say that what is coming in the way of his ouster is the view that his sacking will reinforce the opposition charge that the UPA government had failed to tackle the terror challenge. The party leadership is also of the view that giving the axe to Patil now may not serve the purpose of enabling the party to face the offensive that the BJP is set to unleash in the coming State Assembly elections on its plank that the UPA is soft on terror.

Alienated minority communities will trigger more terror

Another dimension of the problem of tackling terrorism was brought out by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday, September 17, when he warned of “new waves of terror” if the alienation of the minority communities was not addressed. Deliv¬ering the Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, he said: “There is the challenge of alienation of the Muslim community and, more recently, of the Christian community. The divide between Muslims and Hindus is taking new and dangerous forms - ghettoisation, social boycott, discrimination in employ¬ment and the blurring of lines between state and religion as was seen in Gujarat.

“Out of the hopelessness and despair of the Muslim community - and if not addressed firmly, the Christian tribal communities too - will rise new waves of terror. There is no other explana¬tion for the phenomenon of graduates and engineers and doctors - born, educated and living in India - taking to the path of violence,” Chidambaram said.

Both External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chidam¬baram lauded Field Marshal Cariappa for ensuring the Army’s apolitical stance. In contrast, Pakistani tryst with destiny ended after 11 years of Independence and Myanmar’s democratic system collapsed after 14 years and the Army took over.

Describing China as a “rival” and “unpredictable” neighbour, Chidambaram said Beijing adopted a “negative stance” at the recent Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting and wondered whether it would accept India as an equal.

He said: “Across the subcontinent, we face the unarticulated challenge from an equal and perhaps stronger rival, namely China.” From time to time, China takes unpredictable positions that raise a number of questions about its attitude towards the rise of India. The most recent example is the negative stance adopted by China in the meeting of NSG.”

Giving a strong message to terrorists and those supporting them, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, the gov¬ernment had adopted a policy of zero tolerance to this scourge and the law of the land would be used to punish the perpetrators of terrorism.

Terming terrorism as the greatest threat to India and its economic growth, he said zero tolerance was the only answer to terrorism and said the UPA Government was determined to take resolute counter-measures to defeat terrorism. He also said “we will use all provisions of the law to eliminate this scourge.”

ARC for tough terror law

The Administrative Reforms Commission on Tuesday, September 16, backed the demand for a stringent anti-terror law that the UPA has opposed so far.

The Commission, headed by M. Veerappa Moily of the Congress, in its report insisted that existing laws were not adequate to deal with terrorism. It recommended changes to the National Security Act and empowering the Centre to investigate terrorist offences. Moily, however, cautioned against “a disturbing trend... of viewing the so-called war against terror as a war against Islam”.

The report ‘Combating Terrorism by Protecting Righteousness”, submitted in June to the Prime Minister for consideration, says the “ordinary laws of the land may not be adequate to book a terrorist”. It calls for the enactment of “a comprehensive and effective legal framework to deal with all aspects of terrorism”. The report suggests there should be suffi¬cient safeguards to prevent its misuse.

A key recommendation is a change in Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which will allow police to jail terror suspects for at least one year without trial. Under such an amended law, no terror accused could be released on bail. In addition, the Commission suggests doubling the period of police custody to a minimum of one month.

When pressed for an answer on whether the new legislation suggested by the Commission was not the same as POTA, Moily said: “It is not POTA, not TADA, not MCOCA — it is a stand alone.”

The BJP has criticized the ARC recommendations, saying that they appear tough on the outside but are soft inside. BJP gener¬al secretary Arun Jaitley said in New Delhi on Wednesday, Septem¬ber 17, including a chapter on terror law in the National Securi¬ty Act 1980 would not be sufficient to counter terrorism.

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