The Hindu : Bill on POTO passed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2002

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Bill on POTO passed

By Our New Delhi Bureau

``I am not Prime Minister courtesy Congress and despite its opposition people want me, and I will remain Prime Minister till they want."

NEW DELHI, MARCH 26. The controversial Prevention of Terrorism Bill to replace the ordinance secured Parliamentary approval today in a historic joint sitting of Parliament, when the ruling National Democratic Alliance — as well as its old ally, the Telugu Desam and its new friend, AIADMK — added up a comfortable majority of 129, with 425 votes in favour of the legislation, 296 against and 60 abstentions.

After a day-long debate in the Central Hall of Parliament , which saw as many as 42 speakers spiritedly participate, the joint sitting mechanism, as per Article 108, allowed the NDA's parliamentary managers to overcome the Government's lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha.

Though the Vajpayee Government had the satisfaction of winning the numbers game, the combined Opposition voices had the better of the ruling combine.

``Will he (Vajpayee) be submissive or will he uphold the prestige of the high office he holds? His moment of reckoning has come.''

The balance of arguments tilted against the Government, as speaker after speaker from the Opposition cited chapter and verse to make the point that the proposed law was morally and constitutionally untenable.

The nine-and-a-half hour debate degenerated into open confrontation between the ruling and Opposition parties, and the personal attack against the Leader of the Opposition launched by the Prime Minister himself at a last minute `intervention' — he was responding to what he described as Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's attack on him in her speech — led to ugly scenes. At one point, the entire House was on its feet and even members of the Treasury benches rushed towards the Speaker's podium forcing the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, to herd his flock back.

The debate was along predictable partisan lines, and neither side hardly cared to convert the other to its views .

Even the Prime Minister did not speak about the legislation on hand, instead he talked about his ``Parivar'' (the Sangh Parivar) and said no one dare question his devotion to the cause of the people. The minds were made up on both sides and the final voting tally reflected exactly what had been expected.

The Trinamool Congress absented itself and the National Conference finally voted with the Government. Mr. Advani, who kicked off the debate on behalf of the Government, made the familiar case in defence of the POTO: after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and after the Security Council resolution no. 1373 of September 28, India had an international obligation to enact an anti-terrorist law.

``We cannot score a decisive victory against terrorism unless a special law of this kind is enacted.''

He also sought to assure the members and the nation at large that the Government was motivated by a sincere desire to deal effectively with the proxy-war being waged by our ``neighbour''.

However, his appeal to political parties was to pass the proposal unanimously in the national interest.

The long debate, and the ugly scenes at the very end when the Prime Minister intervened, led to Mr. Advani virtually abandoning his response to the debate, finishing it off in just two sentences and then suggesting to the chair that the motion be put to vote.

Divisive agenda: Sonia

The Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, charged that the Government was promoting a divisive agenda, already POTO had been used selectively, it had not been used against those who had attacked the Orissa Assembly and organisations like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal which threatened to tear apart the social fabric.

The time had come when the Prime Minister had to decide whether he would succumb to `internal pressures' from the Sangh Parivar organisations or protect the welfare of the people. The Government had not allowed the emergence of a consensus — it had refused to send the bill to a select committee — and, worse, POTO was being pushed through against the backdrop of communal killings, murder and loot in Gujarat and a divisive campaign on Ayodhya.

The BJP's `secular' allies reiterated the arguments spelt out in both Houses last week. They highlighted the need for a special law in these troubled times and felt the Central Government was not doing anything unusual by referring to the Congress' exertions in this direction in the two States ruled by it — Maharashtra and Karnataka. ``The need of the hour is to legislate such special laws. So many governments, depending upon the scenario existing in their States have enacted such special laws,'' observed the Telugu Desam leader, K. Yerrannaidu.

"This is a terror law intended to be used selectively against minorities."

The allies also took solace from the Prime Minister's assurance at an all-party meeting of suitably amending the law if any provision was found to be misused continuously. They also pointed out that it would seem strange for the country not to have an anti-terrorist law when it had been at the forefront of all multilateral forums for concrete steps to clamp down on terrorism. The former Speaker and Nationalist Congress Party leader, P.A. Sangma, perhaps encapsulated the formulation best when he said the dichotomy of domestic resistance to a special law and an opposite stand overseas ``will not sell.''

Non-Congress stalwarts from the Opposition camp took on the Government for creating suspicion among political parties by questioning the bonafides of chief ministers in Opposition-ruled States. ``I did not expect this from L.K. Advani,'' rued the CPI (M) leader, Somnath Chatterjee, who accused the Government of indulging in partisan politics ``to terrorise the minorities and the Opposition''. Since most of the States were inimical to the BJP brand of politics, he forecast that nemesis will finally overcome this Government.

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