NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (UNI): Reiterating that the government is prepared to dilute the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) if suitable amendments are suggested, home minister L K Advani today said the morale of the security forces will be undermined if the legislation is defeated in parliament.
While pointing out that consultation cannot be held before an ordinance is promulgated, the minister said various discussions had been held on the subject at various fora since the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prohibition) Act lapsed in 1995.
Mr Advani said further discussions would be held on the legislation in the all-party meeting to be convened by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as discussions in the parliamentary consultative committee attached to his ministry were over.
The minister was inaugurating a two-day national seminar on Security forces morale and human rights - the right balance, trial by media vs trial by court, and POTO organised by the Criminal Justice Society of India.
Law minister Arun Jaitley delivered the keynote address and others who spoke included former supercop K P S Gill, society president and senior counsel K T S Tulsi, and society secretarygeneral R S Suri.
Mr Advani also released a souvenir on the occasion.
Advani said the aim of legislations such as POTO was to safeguard society, empower security forces, and work towards creating a terrorist-free state.
Noting that the proxy war being waged on India for the past 15 years was far worse than an open war, he said the Punjab police had shown the role security forces could play in tackling the menace.
Mr Advani said terrorist groups would be wittingly or unwittingly helped if parliament failed to pass the legislation during the current session.
He said POTO was also needed to ban the Jaish-e-Mohammad and other terrorist organisations.
He said the laws passed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and particularly Maharashtra were much harsh.
Both Mr Advani and Mr Jaitley said the conviction rate under the Maharashtra law had been 77 per cent during 2000-2001, while that in the pending cases under TADA had been less than six per cent.
They referred in this connection to the provision for making interception of phone calls admissible as evidence which had helped the Mumbai police.
Referring to alleged human rights violations by the security forces, he said it was for the courts and the prosecution to determine whether such violations were deliberate mala fide criminal acts or were results of bona fide errors.
Six suggestions made by the Supreme Court had been incorporated in the law, Advani said.
reiterating that terrorism was not a low-intensity war as it hit out at the fabric of society, Jaitley said the malaise had taken a greater toll - 61,000 civilians and almost 9,000 security personnel - than in all the four wars that the country had fought since independence.
He said at least five states were badly affected by terrorism.
He regretted that it often became difficult to check the overground activity of militant groups who set up frontal organisations.
These groups exaggerated the activities of security forces and gave them a bad name.
He said security forces would not have to face charges of human rights violations if they were given legitimate powers.
He said financing of terrorism or terrorists should be made an offence, profits earned out of terrorism confiscated, and there should be special provisions for preventing witnesses from turning hostile (for which the law commission had made some suggestions).
At the same time, interception of phone conversations should be made admissible in evidence, and said special procedures are necessary to deal with terrorism.
While the government supported a free media, we cannot be driven by the media all the time.
The term trial by media was a misnomer since more often than not politicians and even the judiciary were led by the media, he said.
Referring to the objections to POTO by the media, he said the word journalist does not appear anywhere in the ordinance.
Furthermore, section 3(8) about giving information to police had only been reproduced from the Criminal Procedure Code.
He said no journalist had ever been prosecuted under this section.
The only change in section 3(8) of POTO was the addition of terrorist offences.
The charge that minorities would be targeted under POTO was meaningless since there were less than five per cent cases outside Jammu and Kashmir relating to the minorities under TADA.
Mr Tulsi said there was a need for a permanent legislation to check terrorism, and the defects of TADA had to be taken care of.
He said the supreme court has already examined all the bail provisions that POTO had incorporated.
The definition of terrorist activities should be amplified to cover acts such as the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.
Mr Gill said the attacks on POTO appeared to be part of a larger design to harm the country.
It could be the work of Pakistani agents.
The common man wanted peace and was in favour of this law, he added.
