Saturday’s bomb blasts in Hyderabad, just months after a similar attack in that City and in Bombay, have resulted in our political parties taking their usual positions. The BJP’s Venkaiah Naidu has said the continuing terror attacks inside the country were a direct result of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) not being in force, and L.K. Advani has said the terror attacks could have been prevented if “tough anti-terror laws” were in place.
On the other hand, the Union home minister Shivaraj Patil has asserted there is no question of bringing back POTA, which was allowed to die a quiet death by the United Progressive Alliance government. “There is no guarantee that such incidents would not have occurred if this legislation had been in force. Such incidents, in fact, took place even after POTA was brought in, he pointed out.”
Questions: Should POTA be brought back? Did POTA play a role in curbing terror or is its utility being overstated? Was the UPA decision not to renew POTA politically motivated to “appease the minorities”, as the BJP claims, or was it a fair move given its widespread misuse? Is the introduction of “tough, anti-terror laws” which places individual freedom and civil liberties on the backburner OK if it makes India terror-free?
POTA is no magic bullet. Unless we start valuing the lives of our citizens, things won’t change. We had enough attacks in the past – what did we do? Nothing!! As usual, We just talked about it and forgot!
Yes bring back POTA in its old name or a new name. After it was allowed to die, the terrorism activity in India has increased. There was the fear factor which is not there now. It was removed not because it was bad but to gain vote bank.Just because it was first brought in by the previous Govt, it need not be removed. The defects can be corrected and supervised by some judges so that it is not misused. When Indra of congress could bring in emergency to save her position, why not reintroduce POTA to save India. All selfish motives.
no POTA/GITA.
Since it is not guaranteed that these types of activities would not have happened if POTA were there, we will not use it as a deterrent. Terrorism, street murderers and pick pockets will all have same level of deterrence only. the sight of lathi wielding mama should be enough to send shivers down their spines. As our home minster has rightly pointed out, if there is a flood many people die and people help each other. similarly terrorism also another act of god only no? what good is POTA? who will you book under POTA, angels?
We never had any shortage of laws to tackle problems such as this. Our problem all along has been law enforcement. De-politicize the police, provide them proper equipment, training and most important of all, incentives. There’s no reason why they can’t enforce law the way it is supposed to be.
bring back pota and arrest all those who are resisting it now under POTA. they probably have something to hide.
Equating terrorism with natural calamities is the ultimate height of foolishness or self deception. The political alliances are blinding the ruling party leaders towards the impending disaster. The policy of minority appeasement is the root cause of unbridled growth of terrorist activities.
The confidential letter of Rajiv Trivedi Addl. commissioner (Crime and SIT) of A.P which warned against the handling with kids glove the spokes persons of certain organization who succeed in brow beating the government. His observations have proven to be prophetic with the recent blasts in Hydrabad.
He aptly states that police officers who are crushing the fundamentalists with iron hand, are being labeled as anti minority by some people including a few politicians who are interested in consolidating their vote bank.
POTA of NDA ,COCA ( Control of organised crime ) of congress or some other fool proof Act, what ever may be the nomenclature , a stringent act is needed to curb the terrorism.
We are not bothered about the caste , community or nationality of the perpetuator of terror . Terror knows no religion . Only the way to curb terrorism is to strike terror in the heart of terrorists. All those who try to blink at the act of terrorism and plead to give benefit of doubt are morally responsible for the genocide and doing a grave disservice to the country and humanity
@ tarle subba… tale ideyenri nimge ? hwo is flood similar to terrorrism ?
and regarding the need of POTA, yes, it has to be brought back. It is no secret that Sonia Maino once said in a minority meeting that POTA had hurt the feelings of minority and hence it was scraped. A tragedy indeed.
and these Congress people are of such double standards – they have MaCOCA in Maharashtra which is fiercer than POTA and more an illogical law. But they oppose POTA for the reasons god knows. And Tarle subba supports them !
i pity India for yet to device a mechanism to contain terrorism with political parties like Congress and the Left out there for minority appeasement…
Let one relative of one MLA/MP of the “minority-appeasing parties” suffer so much as a burn wound in a terrorist attack, and you’ll have the whole lot clamouring for a law which will make POTA look positively benign…
My point is that as long as our “elected representatives”, their family, friends and friends’ families have Z class security securing their b***s, they couldn’t give a shit if such bombings happened everyday. After all, nobody got elected on a “security for all” platform anyway, but every other party wants to ensure that the “minority vote” is in their pockets.
Do not expect our “elected representatives” to care too much about such attacks in the near future. Not unless we start voting on who can act toughest on terror.
@TS , I am surprised ….equating terrorism with some natural calamity is a definite troll
Condemn the act. Let the Governments take all precautionary as well as stringent measures. Let the politicians howl, bark. Don’t care for them.Never take chance. Let innocent people be spared from such cruelties.
Some thing has to be done at the earliest. We have to be really tough on terror and the people who promote it. We know who they are and our Govt do not want to do any thing about it just for votes. See the presentation you will know why!
http://rdr.hopto.org/Pseudosecularism.pps
Congress Party doesn’t have the balls to stand up and tackle terrorism – every action should have a reaction…. bring back POTA!
All interested may read im today’s (27th Aug.) The Times of India an article “Inside the world of fatwas” by Mohammed Wajihuddin. Goutam, please note.
What is the use of POTA? ISI activities didn’t reduce after introducing POTA. CPI(Maoist) was banned under POTA but Maoist insurgency activities also increased in Jharkhand and other states after introducing POTA. Ranveer Sena was not banned under POTA because BJP leaders thought that killing dalits is not a crime. Many innocents were also arrested by name of POTA. What is the use of restoring such act?
yes, bring back POTA…i think thats the only solution…and stalin-mao, i think you are one of those left leaning morons…go to china and hang yourself…
May be I am digressing.Our Police, security mental makeup seem to be geared only for the protection of Ministers,C.M. ,P.M. etc They are also geared to see that functions like Independence day and Republic day should go troublefree.No security exists for common man. Where is intelligence-gathering these days?They come to know of an incident after it has occured!How Israel manges to protect their Ministers and their Public throughout the year when there are enemies all around? Sure it is a smaller place and bombings have taken place there. But, by and large, their intelligence smell such things well ahead and make sure they don’t happen.
Some years back, when our Govt. was considering handing over hardcore terrorists during Kandhahar hijack,I asked an Israeli student who was in the train to Mysore whether they would have exchanged terrorists for passengers. He laughed and said,’if we do that, there will be a hijack every hour!’
>>Yeshu wrote: yes, bring back POTA…i think thats the only solution…and stalin-mao, i think you are one of those left leaning morons…go to china and hang yourself…>>
Position of India is different from position of China. In India, criminals are freed and innocents are punished by blind laws. I think no other country releases criminals so easily like India. Even POTA has been misused for punishing innocents.
There are literally hundreds of laws against cheating, thieving,gambling, vandalism of public property, prostitution,sedition, spying, you name it. That has resulted in Rama Rajya for India, at least so far. What good will POTA do if you have a section of the population plotting from within and doing damage on the sly. Terrorists that are caught and prosecuted under “the normal law” will go through the same amount of time in prison/death penalty that criminals under POTA undergo, more or less. Please throw some light on how “POTA/GOTA” can help, seriously.
I forgot to add this in my earlier comments. Will introduction of POTA prevent a second/third partitiion when the demography of India changes again in the next ten to fifteen years and a huge segment of the population demands another vivisection in violent ways. Either that, or the re-establishment of Mughal rule in the Lal Killa is the aim of forces that have spread across in the country that are currently involved in such terrorist activities, and how exactly will POTA help prevent that situation is the question.
I think tarlesubba meant to pose a question of this sort than try and compare “act of God” with terrorism, please correct me if I’m wrong.
Dont know if the people know where the solution is but surely the govt and top leaders know where India’s solutions. And fortunately I have realized it.
The known problems are poverty, poor infrastructure, terrorism, cleanliness and illiteracy. The solution can be BROUGHT provided there is enough MONEY.
So where is the Money going to come from??
Answer: From the Tax payers!!
So, how many are paying tax
Answer: 3.1% of the 1.3 billion population
inference is: 3.1% of Tax payers are supporting the 3.1 billion people’s security, infrastructure etc etc.
if you find – brothers, sisters, parents, children, friends and mainly yourself avoiding taxes, then please encourage them to pay it. It is only going to comeback to them eventually as facilities.
So to tackle terrorism the country needs funds to mobilise forces to put up superior tracking mechanisms ..
It is real unfortunate, we have brainless, selfish politician in our country like Mulayam Yadave and Amar Sing. I could not understand why these people are supporting SIMI. I believe, these people are the political shell for the terrorism. We should bring POTA back. Even in UK and US , we have toughest law than POTA. To get the vote bank, most of the leaders are supporting ……
PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE.
POTA SHOULD BE BROUGHT BACK AND ALSO ENFORCED IRRESPECTIVE OF WHOEVER IT IS.