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Bring back POTA, says Advani

— Photo: PTI

BJP leader L.K. Advani along with Gopinath Munde at a bomb blast site in Jaipur on Wednesday.

JAIPUR: Tuesday’s terror strike in Jaipur has prompted the Bharatiya Janata Party to push for reintroduction of the stringent Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).

Party elders L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh, who went round the blast sites and visited hospitals on Wednesday, appealed to the Centre “to have a rethink” on POTA.

“The BJP believes that re-introduction of POTA is the need of the hour. It is one of the several legal, political and administrative initiatives that must be taken to strengthen India in its war against terrorism,” Mr. Advani said.

Talking to journalists in the presence of Mr. Singh and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje here, he said the United Progressive Alliance government, for fear of losing its vote bank, was not showing enough commitment in the fight against terror.

“The UPA government, which will shortly complete four years in office, has such a dismal record in discharging this responsibility that it instils no confidence whatsoever [in the people],” Mr. Advani said in a statement released to the media.

“The Centre should realise that apart from laws, the government should give out a strong message that it would not compromise on terrorism.”

The withdrawal of POTA by the UPA government caused immense harm. The Congress and its allies disarmed the law enforcement agencies of the “most potential legislative weapon they had in combating terrorist outfits,” Mr. Advani charged. “Their campaign against POTA was most irresponsible, short-sighted an inimical to national interests.”

He said the UPA government failed to investigate, prosecute and punish the guilty for the terrorist attacks in Delhi, Ayodhya and Bangalore in 2005, Varanasi, Mumbai and Malegaon in 2006, Hyderabad in 2007 and Rampur (Uttar Pradesh) in 2008.

“This failure is due to the soft, weak and apathetic approach of the government that is unwilling to summon up the requisite political will to mount a comprehensive attack on terrorism.

Linking his plea for a more strident stand against terrorism with the case of Shaukat Hussain Guru, whose petition challenging his 10-year imprisonment for involvement in the attack on Parliament was dismissed on Wednesday, Mr. Advani said: “With the latest developments in Jaipur and the SC order on Shaukat Hussain Guru, the Centre should act on the court order on the death penalty to Afzal Guru [in the same case].”

Earlier, Ms. Raje also dwelt on the absence of adequate laws to fight terrorism. She urged the Centre to clear the Rajasthan legislation to curb organised crime, pending since 2006. Similar laws in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh were cleared, but the Centre took a “discriminatory stand” against Gujarat and Rajasthan. “We need a POTA-like law,” she said.

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