The Hindu : Gujral criticises joint session on POTO

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 24, 2002

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Gujral criticises joint session on POTO

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANIPAL MARCH 23. The former Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, today criticised the Centre for getting a joint session of Parliament convened on Tuesday to discuss the bill on the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO).

Addressing a press conference here, he said the Government should understand the nation's sentiment, and trying to bypass it was not prudent. There was enough evidence of the misuse of TADA. Besides, most States had made it clear that they would not implement POTO. The Government should respond to public opinion instead of making the passage of the bill a prestige issue.

On the utility of a third front, Mr. Gujral said that earlier, such a front primarily consisted of regional parties. Now there was a large presence of these parties in the NDA. Unless there was a qualitative shift, it would be difficult to evolve the third front. More importantly, it should spell out its attitude towards the Congress which was secular and a force to reckon with. The idea of such a front being equidistant from the Congress and the BJP was outdated. ``The urgent need is to evolve a very broad front of all secular parties to effectively resist the ideological onslaughts of all fundamentalists, and radicalised varieties.''

On Indo-Pakistan ties, Mr. Gujral said that it was in the interest of both the countries to restore the bus, train and air links. The argument that these links facilitated terrorist movement into the country was wrong, as they (terrorists) had their own routes. He hoped Pakistan would extradite terrorists to India.

Expressing concern over the Ayodhya imbroglio, he said India was a multi-cultural and multi-religious nation. It was wrong to think that one community was living at the mercy of another community or religion. Even the allies of the BJP raised their voice against the RSS resolution passed in Bangalore recently. The Prime Minister should view the development seriously. Irresponsible statements were cause for concern, Mr. Gujral added.

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