Congress calls for national debate on terrorism

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday called for a national debate on terrorism, particularly on the emergence of "home-grown terrorists" in recent years.
 
"We would like to have a national debate on terrorism, particularly on home-grown terrorists and reasons behind the phenomenon," Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.
 
He said the Congress would like to attach itself with the concern expressed by BJP's Arun Jaitley on the home-grown terrorists in recent years.
 
"We join with him on this issue and ask for the reasons for the growth of these terrorists," Ahmed said, adding, "the home-grown terrorists have increased after the BJP started its communal politics in the late 1980s."
 
He said in this decade, communal politics was done twice -- once in the years preceding the partition and then later on by the BJP.
 
"Communal terrorism came to the country for the first time in the Mumbai blasts of 1993 following communalisation of politics," Ahmed, who is also the Minister of State for Home, said.
 
Ridiculing the demand for promulgation of POTA by the BJP, Ahmed doled out figures to suggest that when this anti-terror law was in place (during NDA regime), there were more incidents of violence and civilian deaths than that during the Congress regime when POTA was repealed.
 
He said during the NDA regime from 1999 to 2003, there were 36,259 incidents of violence, including in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast besides Naxal and communal violence. In the incidents, 11,714 civilians died, he said.

On the other hand, Ahmed said during the UPA regime of since 2004, there were 24,967 incidents of violence in which 6,636 people died.
 
"The figures clearly indicate that POTA was a failed law. There was violence even though POTA was in place," he said.
 
The figures released by the Congress showed that only Naxal violence increased in the UPA regime while there was a decline in other forms of violence.
 
During the NDA regime, 6,695 incidents of Naxal violence took place in which civilian casualties amounted to 2,185 while in the UPA regime, there were 7,228 incidents of Naxal violence that killed 2,281 people.
 
The figures released by the party did not take into account the deaths of police personnel during violence and all terror-related acts were put in the column of communal violence.
 
The party bracketed terrorism in three forms - one generated by separatism, another by Naxals and the third by communalism.
 
Ahmed said communal terrorism has increased due to the feeling of injustice and a national debate would help ameliorate the perceived grievances and misgivings.