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Congress rejects 'cosmetic' amendments in POTO

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Echoing the opposition line, the Congress on Friday said the amendments proposed by the government in the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance were a "sop to its alliance partners and we will vigorously oppose it [the law] as ever before".

"The amendments approved by the Cabinet are marginal and cosmetic," chief spokesman S Jaipal Reddy said. "We, therefore, are of the considered view that these amendments do not deserve any consideration from our side."

Though the Cabinet has amended section 3(8) of POTO [which provides for citizens, including journalists, to be questioned by the authorities for not sharing 'vital' information], Reddy pointed out that it had retained section 3(14) under which journalists could still be investigated.

"Many features of POTO remain draconian," he said, noting that it does not even contain a definition of the term 'terrorism', limiting itself to defining a terrorist act. "The definition is so vague and sweeping that anybody and everybody can be brought under its dragnet," he charged.

Reddy said the provision allowing confessions made to a police officer could "lend itself to terrible abuse". He was also unhappy that POTO would be administered not by officials at the senior bureaucratic level but at the junior police officer level.

Reddy said the Congress did not intend to meet members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance to discuss the law. "They are entirely dependent [on the Bharatiya Janata Party]," he remarked. But at the same time, he said they were "deeply conscious" of the bitterness of some NDA allies on the subject.

"An impression is being created by the BJP that we do not have special laws to fight terrorism," he said, and argued that laws like the National Security Act and the Border Areas Act were sufficient for this purpose.

The Anti-Terror Law: The complete coverage

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