National
'Govt. will not retract on POTO'
By J. Venkatesan
NEW DELHI, DEC. 6. ``The Government will not retract even if political consensus eludes on the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO),'' the Union Law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, asserted today.
``We cannot become helpless for want of a consensus. It is imperative to give a chilling message to all terrorist groups that acts of terrorism will not be tolerated any more,'' he said while speaking at the interactive session `India's security: the legal challenge' of the 74th annual session of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here.
On the issue of consensus, he said ``political consensus gets sacrificed when politics overtakes it.'' In this context, he said ``it is important that we decide as to what type of country we want - a soft pathetic state or a country which knows how to address constant assaults that are taking place daily.''
He underscored that there was a direct correlation between security and an unstinted economic activity. Reeling out statistics, Mr. Jaitley said already Rs. 45,000 crores had been spent on anti-insurgency operations; more than 61,000 civilians and 9,000 security personnel had lost their lives fighting the terrorists.
``It is shocking to note that so far 48,000 kg of RDX has been seized, enough to probably blast each inch of Indian soil. This magnitude of terrorism cannot be tackled by velvet gloves but by iron hands,'' he added.
Justifying the ban on terrorist organisations including the People's War Group (PWG) and Maoist organisations, he said ``the PWG has been discouraging the strong economic establishment in Andhra Pradesh by targeting industrialists and industry.'' He was of the view that ``terrorism creates political instability and an environment where developmental process takes a back seat and nobody benefits in the process and the whole nation suffers.'' Dispelling apprehensions about the misuse of POTO, Mr. Jaitley emphatically stated that it was intended to be used only against terrorists and not against innocent people.
Having a dig at human rights organisations for criticising POTO, he said they never condemned insurgents and had a tendency to dismiss then as a misguided lot, but did not fail to blame the police and paramilitary forces.
J&K badly hit: Farooq
The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, shared the views of Mr. Jaitley that POTO was essential to contain terrorism. Some vested interests were resisting the POTO under the garb of protecting minorities, he said and maintained that his Government would use POTO in the State to contain terrorism.
The tourism industry, hotel business and local handicrafts had collapsed in the State due to terrorism. More than one lakh people had died in the past two decades in terrorist attacks, he added.
The Chief Minister said the only solution to the Kashmir issue was through conversion of the Line of Control (LoC) into an international border or targeting the militant camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
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