No special laws to tackle terrorism: BJP
July 15th, 2011 - 9:56 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley Friday slammed the government for not having special laws against terrorism and accused it of following “vote bank politics”.
In a statement, two days after the serial blasts in Mumbai, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said the campaign to repeal TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act) was started after it was used to punish those guilty for the Mumbai blasts of 1993.
“Some mainstream political parties have succeeded in sending a clear political message that you can commit a terror attack and get away,” Jaitley said.
“TADA was brought in by Shri Rajiv Gandhi to investigate terror acts and punish the terrorists. Some states misused it against the farmers but it was not repealed. When it was correctly used against the terrorists responsible for the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, a campaign for its repeal was launched and TADA was repealed.”
Jaitley added that “POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) was repealed on the ground that we did not need a special law against terror”.
The leader of opposition also accused the government of indulging in vote bank politics.
“It is vote-bank and vote-bank politics alone which is responsible for delaying punitive action against the conspirators in the parliament attack. The National Counter Terrorism Centre promised to be created by September 2009 has still not been created,” he said.
“The three serial blasts in Mumbai are a grim reminder to the Indian people that we are extremely high on the terrorists’ radar. We cannot afford to lower our guard nor take any satisfaction in reeling out statistics that Mumbai has been attacked by terrorists after a gap of thirty one months,” he added.
Meanwhile, party spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad questioned the government for not having any intelligence inputs on the attack that killed 17 people Wednesday.
“The prime minister and home minister must answer why there were no inputs in the blasts,” Prasad questioned.
Three blasts rocked central-to-south Mumbai Wednesday evening — at Dadar, Zaveri Bazar and Opera house, killing 17 people and injuring 133.
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