Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 15, 2008
As the nation mourns the dead in Delhi blasts
and watches with disbelief TV footages of Home Minister Shivraj Patil changing
dresses thrice within three hours after the Saturday tragedy, pressure mounted
on the Government to revamp the country's internal security set-up and put
in place a tougher anti-terror law.
Patil has been in the line of fire of both
the Opposition and his own Cabinet colleagues for quite sometime. While the
main Opposition BJP sees him as the biggest stumbling block in approving anti-terror
laws proposed by States like Gujarat and Rajasthan, several senior UPA leaders
have openly questioned his competence at the Cabinet meetings.
With the Home Ministry looking like the weakest
chain in the country's policing, Patil may find it difficult to sit idle while
the terrorists go on executing their diabolical plots with impunity. Delhi
blasts and TV expose of Patil's 'insensitivity' may give strong handle to
those seeking tough State-specific laws to deal with terror and Patil's replacement
with someone who could lead from the front..
As the chorus for tough anti-terror law increased,
former President APJ Abdul Kalam also argued for stringent legislative deterrence
to deal with the scourge. Kalam said the country needed to enact a law, which
would provide stringent punishment to the culprits and also favoured introduction
of citizen's identity card.
"I have said we need to enact a law which
would provide stringent punishment and ensure justice," Kalam said while
expressing his views on serial blasts in the national Capital on Saturday
evening. He also said that national citizen identity cards should be issued
as "it is very important."
Meanwhile, PTI quoting Delhi Chief Minister
Sheila Dikshit said, "I have no role in police or security management
of the city. (But) I am voicing concerns of people that a tougher law which
is a deterrent (should be there)." Dikshit said she was voicing concerns
of the people in this regard as she has "no role" in police or security
management of the city.
Patil is also under pressure from the highest
level in the UPA Government to approve the request from State Government to
bring in their own anti-terror laws. National Security Advisor NK Narayanan
is understood to have favoured Central assent to the Gujarat Control of Organised
Crime Bill, 2003. Naryanan has written a letter to Patil justifying the requirement
of the State-specific terror law.
The Gujarat Bill is pending with the Centre
for the past four years and the Home Ministry has refused to blink despite
the fact that Chief Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly urged both Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil to look into the matter.
The subject was discussed even during the last month's meeting between the
Prime Minister and Modi.
Narayanan's letter to Patil comes close on
the heels of the Home Ministry telling the Gujarat High Court it would not
approve of the anti-terror law on the lines of Prevention of Terrorism Act
(POTA), which was repealed by the Centre.
The affidavit says, "It would not be
in consonance with the policy of the Central Government, which led to the
repeal of POTA, to recommend the passing of any such legislation that contains
similar provisions." But with anger and frustration rising among the
people and terrorists acting without fear of law and men, Patil may be left
with little option but to allow the States to have their way on anti-terror
laws.
