Opposition leader and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, while addressing the joint sitting of Parliament on POTO, said on Tuesday that the proposed law violated the basic rights of the country's citizens and was anti-democratic. Sonia asked the government to explain to what extent POTO has been successful in containing cross-border terrorism or militancy in the northeast during the last five months since the Ordinance has been in effect.
"POTO has been selectively used in a partisan way," she said, adding while an innocent family in J&K, which has nothing to do with terrorism, has been made to suffer under POTO, people who had desecrecated the sanctity of the disputed structure in Ayodhya, or the Bajrang Dal, which was instrumental in creating communal tension in the country.
Charging some Union ministers for making "a 180-degree turn" on POTO, she said Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Railways Minister Ram Naik and Coal Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had all opposed TADA when the Bill was first tabled in the Parliament.
Voicing her strong opposition to the Bill, Sonia said, "POTO, I suspect, will become an instrument in the hands of this government to opress Opposition parties, minorities, and weaker and ethnic groups."
She also said, "Draconian laws have rarely been successful in combating terrorism and the purpose of fighting terrorism cannot be achieved by curbing individual freedom."
Reminding the nation of Congress' own fight against terrorism, the Opposition leader pointed out that "the Congress party lost two of its tallest leaders in the fight against terrorism. So, the party does not need any lessons in patriotism, least of all from those who promote hatred in the nation."
In her closing remarks, she said, "the moment of reckoning has come, and the Congress stands firmly opposed to Poto." Bureau Report