The prime minister has rejected the BJP demand for revival of anti-terror law Pota in the wake of the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
NEW DELHI: The prime minister has rejected the BJP demand for revival of anti-terror law Pota in the wake of the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
The demand by BJP leader LK Advani was turned down by Manmohan Singh soon after it was made, saying, “The attacks on parliament and Akshardham temple took place when Pota was in force. There is no dearth of laws in the country to deal with terrorism.”
After almost every terrorist strike, the BJP has been bemoaning the absence of Pota. Within hours of the Ahmedabad blasts, Advani said, “The anti-terror legal framework of the government has weakened after the repeal of Pota.
The alacrity with which the government should have responded to terror has not been there.”
“Did Pota prevent terror attacks in the past? Parliament was attacked when the law was in force,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said.
The NDA had enacted Pota in 2002 in the midst of stiff opposition from civil rights groups and the Congress. The Manmohan Singh-led UPA government repealed the law in 2004 following complaints of harassment of innocent people, especially minorities. The debate over the controversial law has continued since.
The Congress defends itself against charges of being soft on terrorism saying a law like Pota is not preventive or pre-emptive. “It does not prevent acts of terrorism,” Tewari said, adding, “What the Congress is considering is a federal agency on the lines of the US-based national center to counter terrorism.”
Concerns are being expressed in the Congress over the BJP’s attempts to use the terror strikes to reinforce its charge that the UPA government is soft on terror.
“There is a sinister attempt to make political capital out of this tragedy,” Tewari said.
j_ansari@dnaindia.net
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