Bharatiya Pragna - Dr. Th Chowdary

35
senior police officers both at the central and state
levels for enacting a comprehensive, tough antiterror
law. Mr Narayanan did not see anything
wrong in supporting such a demand.”
The Administrative Reforms Commission,
appointed by the government under the chairmanship
of senior Congress leader Veerappa
Moily, strongly supported the need for stringent
anti-terrorist law. Speaking to the media on September
17, he said “a strong anti-terror law with
equally strong safeguards to prevent its misuse is
needed.”
On September
24, Congress general
secretary Rahul Gandhi
said, “There should be a
strong law to deal with
terror. A powerful law,
not a failed law. POTA menace of terrorism.
is a failed law.”
In spite of these pronouncements, what
is the net result? “No, no, we do not need a
new law. Existing laws, if strengthened, are
enough to fight terror.”
How can India be safe under a government
that has no mind of its own, that speaks in
so many voices, and that is led by a prime minister
who has an office but no authority? It is difficult
to find out who runs this government and who
takes the decisions.
Our commitment: To make India terror-free
Friends, there is no point any longer in
demanding anything from this spineless and visionless
government. As they say in Hindi, the
ulti ginati of this government (reverse counting
of its days in office) has begun. The people of
India will dethrone the UPA rulers whenever the
next parliamentary elections are held.
However, let me present some of our
concrete promises, commitments and ideas to
make India safe from terror.
If voted to power, the NDA will re-enact
POTA. The critics of POTA have so far been
unable to show a single shortcoming in it. Therefore,
the least we expect from our friends in the
Congress party is that, now that many of its senior
functionaries have spoken in favour of a strong
anti-terror law, they
While enemies of the nation are
uniting and coordinating their actions, it is
sad that narrow electoral considerations are
standing in the way of political parties and
governments giving a concerted fight to the
should support re-enactment
of POTA in the
15 th Lok Sabha.
I am saying
this because the time
has come to treat the
fight against terrorism as
a national issue requiring
broad national consensus. It is in this spirit
that recently wrote to former President Dr APJ
Abdul Kalam, wholeheartedly supporting his suggestion
for a bipartisan approach to combat terrorism.
The BJP favours setting up a federal
anti-terror agency, which has become absolutely
necessary for evolving effective coordination between
the Centre and the states — and also
among states themselves — in intelligence-gathering,
intelligence exchange, action, investigation,
prosecution and planning and execution of preventive
operations.
The Vajpayee government, for the first
time since Independence, had formulated an integrated
policy for national security. A group of
ministers, supported by experts’ taskforces (I had
November & December 2008 Bharatiya Pragna