POTA is not the answer



When India attained Independence, she embraced socialism because it seemed to be the wise thing to do. With capitalist America struggling to emerge out of depression and socialist Europe and Communist Soviet emerging victorious, adopting socialism for a just born country was thought of as a logical step. In the late 80s when the socialist part of Germany broke apart and Soviet crumbled, Capitalism was thought to be the saviour.

The political think tank, devoid of cultural imagination, is doing exactly the same with respect to countering terrorism. When the right-wing BJP government brought in POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act), it was dubbed as inhuman, anti-people law from a ‘fascist’ party. Now, four years after repealing POTA and countless terror attacks that almost seems to pull down the government, the Proxy-Manmohan-led Congress government is thinking of bringing back POTA. Understandably to save face, they are not going to call it POTA but the terror law in any name is going to smell just as foul.

POTA, when it was in force, helped the autocratic political leaders more than the Anti-Terror Squad. With sky-high rights enabled by POTA where anyone could be detained anytime, locked up without having to be produced in court, tried in-camera by special courts, ability to raid any house at any time without sufficient warrant, etc., the leaders such as Mayavati, Jayalalitha played havoc with their political opponents. Under POTA, even human rights activists holding protest marches in support of detainees could be arrested as well. Using this law, Arundhati Roy can be arrested for speaking in favour of Kashmir’s liberation. And if BJP were in power, they would have done just that.

POTA is not the answer to curb terrorism. Understanding leaders like Laloo who brazenly link Muslims with terrorism is. In a recent statement condemning the Delhi Bomb Blasts, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav added that ‘terrorists have no religion or castes.’ Apparently he hasn’t read the emails sent by the Indian Mujahideen immediately after the blasts as they have clearly identified which religion they belong to and which God they have dedicated these deaths to. Putting an emphatic stop to these immature, politically motivated statements is. And ousting spineless home ministers like Shivraj Patil is.

Within two hours of the blasts in Delhi, Patil had changed his suit thrice to attend meetings and press conferences. And uttered gems such as ‘We knew Delhi was to be attacked but did not know the time and the location of the attacks’ and hence could not stop them. Such an attitude sends dangerous signals to Indian Mujahideens who are planning more fireworks. POTA would do absolutely nothing as long as the political think tank continues to lead people to believe that terrorism is a Pakistani importation and Indian Muslims are totally different from the rest of the world, or that Hindu fundamentalists must stop their activities in order to end terrorism, or that the economic backwardness or the social ghettoisation is the reason for Muslim youth turning to terror.

What is required is the real War on Terror that uses existing laws effectively and pushes the current cases aggressively to bring the accused to justice. That resolve is currently missing. As long as minorityism is confused with secularism, Mujahideen’s will continue to confuse mass murder with religious worship.