BJP questions PM's commitment in fighting terrorism

NEW DELHI: A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pitched for a federal crime agency, the BJP on Sunday questioned his commitment to fight terror and said a new agency would be of no use unless it is armed with a POTA-type stringent anti-terror law.
    
"Manmohan Singh's bonafides in the war against terror are suspect," senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, while asking whether a federal agency under him to deal with terror crimes can really be trusted given his "track record" in the last four years.
    
"It is ironical that after being in prime ministerial office for four years the Prime Minister has finally woken up to the harsh and cruel reality that prevention and investigation of terrorism in India is on the verge of collapse," Jaitley said.
    
He said the repeal of POTA, not giving assent to similar anti-terror laws in BJP-ruled states, non-execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and "helping the accused being prosecuted under POTA for burning Sabarmati Express" raises a legitimate question whether a federal agency under Singh can really be trusted.
    
Jaitley asked, "does the Prime Minister's track record inspire confidence that he will implement his proposal for a federal agency against terror."
    
He also sought to know whether Singh will have the political courage to strengthen the content of India's anti-terrorist laws to make them more "terrorist-unfriendly".
    
Claiming that the Prime Minister and Congress had been opposing strong anti-terror law, he sought to know "will not the federal agency be helpless in investigating terrorist crimes if confessions of terrorists are inadmissible evidence and an easy bail is available to the terrorists under normal law".    

Jaitley also sought to know what purpose would be achieved in merely changing the investigating agency, particularly when investigation and prevention of terrorism is to take place "under a law which is not terrorist-unfriendly".
    
He also accused the UPA government of having a "scandalous record of having misled the CBI, an investigative agency of the Central Government for political purposes in the last four years."
    
"Systematically, cases against UPA leaders have been closed and the political opponents have been harassed by the CBI."
    
Jaitley accused the UPA government of "deliberately" not giving Presidential assent to three BJP-ruled states -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat -- to operationalise the laws against organised crimes, while such laws are operational in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh (both ruled by Congress) and Karnataka.
    
"The effect of this is going to be that cases relating to the Mumbai train blasts and the Malegaon blasts will be investigated under the MCOCA but when accused are arrested in relation to the Jaipur serial blasts, they will be investigated under the ordinary law where easy bails will be available and confessions of the terrorists will not be
admissible evidence," he said.
    
"The crippling of the investigation in the Jaipur blasts is directly attributable to the political motivated withholding of Presidential assent by the UPA government," Jaitley said.
    
The senior BJP leader also accused Manmohan Singh of using his "softness on terror for vote bank politics rather than for security considerations."
    
The BJP was willing to discuss the issue provided it involves not merely a change of the investigative agency but also the content of the law, he said.
    
"Our anti-terror laws will have to be made more effective and POTA will have to be re-introduced," he said.     

Jaitley said the jurisdiction to legislate against terrorism is already with the Central Government and the constitutional validity of TADA was challenged before the Supreme Court on the ground that the law and order and public order are state subjects and the Centre cannot legislate with regard to the same.
    
"The Supreme Court has categorically held that the war against terrorism includes the war against sovereignty and defence of India and therefore the legislation against terror falls in the domain of the Central Government," he said.
    
Jaitley also said what prevented the Prime Minister in the last four years from acting in the matter remains an "obvious mystery" and that his government is not "serious in fighting terrorism".
    
"The Central Government has the legislative and Executive powers to introduce and to enact laws in this matter," he said.