Government reacted too late to terror, says Advani

Government reacted too late to terror, says Advani

NEW DELHI: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani on Wednesday accused the government of reacting too late to terror. He, however, expressed satisfaction that the Congress had fundamentally changed its stand on terror by bringing in the National Investigation Agency Bill, 2008 and amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967 to make it more stringent. “Admit stand is wrong” Initiating a debate on the two Bills in the House, he said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance must admit that its stand on tackling terror was wrong and this had harmed the country.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) always supported more stringent laws to deal with terror activities and it was now proved that the UAPA (Amendment) Bill, 2008 was revisiting the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which was brought in by the NDA and scrapped by the present government.

Extending his party’s “in principle” support to the two proposed legislation despite some “inadequacies” in them, he pointed out that POTA was described by the Opposition as “anti-minority.” “Is there any law that is not misused,” he asked drawing attention towards TADA, which was passed when Mr. Chidambaram was the Minister of State for Home. “By viewing laws through the narrow prism of minority and majority, you are damaging the minorities. This is a law against terror and terrorism. You described POTA as a communal law, hopefully this would be a secular law,” he said-The Hindu