Author: A R Kanangi
Publication: Afternoon Despatch
& Courier
Date: November 24, 2001
Can we trust the police? Can we
allow a police officer to be a magistrate as well?
Can we really expect a policeman
not to use force - third degree - to extract a confession from an accused.
It would be a big mistake if a confession
made to a police officer is admissible in a court case.
Confessions are usually extracted
under duress. This is a routine procedure at all police stations. Unable
to bear the pain, the accused breaks down and is ready to say anything
that the police want.
This is one of the flaws in POTO
- the recent ordinance which seeks to deal with terrorism more effectively.
But POTO is a sound strategy. Only
it has some flaws and these have to be removed.
It would have been understandable
if there was some objection to certain provisions in POTO and a demand
for changes, but what we see is a hue and cry - highly suspicious - that
POTO should go.
POTO should not become a political
issue, but it has given a stick to quite a few parties in the opposition
to beat the government with.
It looks like those who want to
divide Muslims and Hindus want the terrorism law to be scrapped. For instance,
the party of Mulayam Singh Yadav is totally, strongly opposed to POTO.
He would not have been so vehement about criticising the law, if perhaps
there was no election in Uttar Pradesh in March.
Political ends
Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav is an unscrupulous
politician who is resorting to communalism to further his political ends.
He fancies himself as a great friend of Muslims. What he is trying to make
out is that POTO will hurt Muslims most. It is a law against them - in
favour of Hindus. The BJP which is interested in promoting Hindutva and
is against Muslims has brought in a bad law.
Stuff and nonsense
We have been too lenient with anti-national
elements in the country. We have been lenient to persons who openly say
they are not Indian. We have been lenient with persons who receive arms
and money from foreign agents and carry on bloody missions. How should
we deal with persons who go to Afghanistan or Pakistan, get trained in
terrorist camps and come to India and resort to violence?
The Human Rights Commission is wrongly
concerned about the campaigns against terrorists in Kashmir. They want
the terrorists to be brought before courts and tried. What it forgets is
that democratic norms are not applicable to anti-national elements. Any
citizen who at the behest of a foreign country commits act of terrorism
and resorts to mass murder does not deserve legal procedures available
in a democracy.
We have been too lenient to pro-Pakistani
militants in Kashmir who have done a great deal of damage to the country.
They have resorted to mass murder and got away with it. They are openly
pro-Pakistan and implementing Pakistan's proxy war. They have chased away
Pandits from their homes -- who today are living under wretched conditions.
They have killed women and children. They have eliminated a large number
of Muslims who are ardent patriots and pro-India.
We failed to nip the Kashmir trouble
in the bud.
It is better late than never. The
situation in the region has undergone a drastic change. We are very near
a country where terrorist camps are being destroyed and a hunt is on for
the world's terrorist number one. There is a global war against terrorism.
We are partners in the coalition that is waging the war against terror.
And in the circumstances, POTO becomes
more relevant.
If we were alert and perhaps if
there was a POTO then, the bomb blasts in Mumbai would not have taken place.
And then, Dawood Ibrahim could not have committed the heinous crime without
massive and active support of quite a few henchmen.
Such anti-national elements are
still in the country.
It is pathetic that anyone can have
sympathy for a terrorist who has masterminded the killing of some 7000
innocent people in New York. There have been some demonstrations in the
country and there was a riot in Malegaon. And there are organisations like
the SIMI which according to Home Minister Chhagan Bhujbal is not even prepared
to say Kashmir belongs to India. Whom are they working for. There are some
who justify action against SIMI but say similar action should have been
taken against Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and the RSS.
None of these organisations is anti-national.
Any person or organisation that
is anti-national should be regarded as a terrorist.
Those who commit murders, rape,
dacoity are not terrorists. They are criminals. I would say Naxalites who
kill and believe that violence alone will get them to power are not terrorists.
The fight that the LTTE is carrying on in Sri Lanka does not come under
terrorism category. It is an ethnic war.
We have enough laws to deal with
crime. And encounters too.
We do not have to apply POTO in
such cases.
POTO should aim to deal with cross-border
terrorism, with anti-national elements who are traitors and who work for
foreign countries.
Just now POTO should be applied
mainly to deal with terrorism in Kashmir. There is nothing like a moderate
anti-national. If the Hurriyat leaders aid and abet campaigns to help Pakistan
grab Kashmir, they too are terrorists. In fact Hurriyat leaders say they
are not Indians. They should be promptly sent to Pakistan.
Ground realities
The Congress party is opposing POTO
not so much because it is against the provisions of the Ordinance but because
it does not want the BJP to win in the one-upmanship game. Of course, in
the case of the Congress, it is opposition for opposition's sake.
The Congress does not want the BJP
to steal the political show. The anti-terrorism move is a major one that
puts many a feather in the BJP's cap.
What it does not realise is that
even if it blocks the passage of the anti-terrorist bill, it will be the
BJP which will have the political advantage. Well, we wanted to move strongly
against terrorism, but the Congress seem to be not at all against terrorism.
The BJP will score greater gain if the POTO is scotched by the Congress.
The Congress has majority in the Rajya Sabha and it can scuttle the POTO.
It is a matter for concern that
a good, necessary, effective measure like the POTO has become a political
issue.
We should take into consideration
ground realities and take steps to deal with them. Following new, disturbing
developments in the region, India has to initiate an effective strategy
to deal with terrorism. For Pakistan's ISI, India has become a grand playing
field. It has done a lot of damage in different parts of the country -
particularly in Kashmir. There are many terrorist bases in Pakistan. We
can expect the US to persuade General Musharraf to dismantle them. Until
this happens, we need a weapon like POTO.
Let us get ahead with POTO in toto.
