BJP allies for safeguards against misuse of POTO

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 19. The National Democratic Alliance has ``supported'' the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance promulgated by the Government, but not unreservedly.

At the start of the winter session during which the ordinance will have to be approved by Parliament if it is not to lapse, what this apparently means is that the allies have pressed for some amendments to be incorporated, although no specific changes were discussed today.

At a meeting of the allied leaders at the Prime Minister's residence here today, members expressed ``apprehensions'' that the new draconian legislation could be ``misused against the press, political opponents and any specific community''. They ``requested'' the Government to ``take necessary steps'' to remove those apprehensions in a two- paragraph resolution that was adopted.

Maneka stays away

Significantly, two important allies which have publicly expressed reservations on POTO - the Trinamool Congress Party and the Akali Dal - were absent today. Their representatives were not among the 24 members who attended. Another absentee was Ms. Maneka Gandhi, who stayed away after having conveyed that she would attend the meeting. She was unhappy about being deprived of the Ministry of Culture which has been taken away from her and given to Mr. Jagmohan.

Earlier, the Government had been toying with the idea of calling an all-party meeting tomorrow to discuss POTO, but now the thinking seems to be that such a meeting should be called after the issue is thrashed out during the consultative committee meeting of the Home Ministry scheduled towards the end of this week.

The Defence Minister and convener of the NDA, Mr. George Fernandes, said later that while it had been decided ``there shall be an all-party meeting to discuss POTO'' no specific date had as yet been fixed or announced by the Government or the Prime Minister. He replied in the negative when asked whether these hectic rounds of discussions with allies and the Opposition parties on POTO after the ordinance had been promulgated was putting the cart before the horse. The implication was that the Government had acted constitutionally - it had the right to issue ordinances - and it was all right for it to discuss the issues involved after issuing the ordinance and such a discussion was not a farce.

Mr. Fernandes confirmed that there were several leaders who had raised concerns about POTO during the two-hour discussion. Mr. Murasoli Maran, Commerce Minister and DMK leader, was one of them. He reported his personal experience of the misuse of MISA. Others pointed out that both MISA and TADA had been repeatedly misused and there could be no guarantee that something similar would not happen with POTO.

It is seen as significant that the allies are also suspicious that the new law, if enacted, could be used against a ``specific community''. Clearly, the reference was to Muslims. The meeting began with the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, briefing the members about the developments related to the Afghan war. Later, it was the Law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitely, who briefed the NDA on POTO and explained some of the salient ``safeguards'' in the proposed legislation which were absent in MISA and TADA.

But the members sought and got assurances that the Government would take the ``necessary steps'' to remove the ``apprehensions'' of misuse of the POTO even as they expressed unanimous support for the new law seen as ``necessary'' in the ``prevailing extraordinary circumstances''.

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