‘Poto can hurt our secular polity’

there is no denying that india has been a victim of terrorism, including cross-border terror propagated by pakistan for more than a decade now. hence, terrorism needs to be rooted out. but i am convinced the prevention of terrorism ordinance (poto), a draconian law, is impinging on our civil liberties and secular polity. like its predecessor tada, it will be misused.the conviction rate of tada arrests is a shocking 1.8 per cent. out of the 77,571 people arrested under tada, over 2000 were let off without trial because no evidence was found against them. surely, our fears that poto will be similarly misused should be addressed. instead we have home minister l k advani saying, ‘‘those who oppose poto favour terrorism.’’ this shocking statement is like us president george bush announcing after september 11, in a cowboy style, ‘‘either you are with us or with them (terrorists).’’ we are with neither. let this be clear. we oppose poto but that doesn’t entitle anybody to cast a doubt on our patriotism or question our nationalism. it has been argued that poto is necessary to curb terror. how did the terror attack on parliament (december 13) happen, while poto was in existence? if poto had helped strengthen intelligence functioning, could the godhra carnage have happened? what then will poto be used for? the fear is, it will be used selectively against minorities. less than 48 hours after poto was passed in lok sabha, came reports that the ordinance has been selectively and widely used against muslims in gujarat, specifically those involved in the godhra incident. sixty people, all muslims, have been booked under poto. not one of the over 800 arrested for violence in ahmedabad and other areas of gujarat, have been booked under poto. it is obvious that for narendra modi’s government, crimes by the minority community are considered more heinous than those committed by the majority and therefore more deserving of stringent punishment. for modi, the systematic targeting of families and putting entire neighbourhoods on fire is evidently not an act of terror. national security is of paramount importance. without protecting the security of a nation, individual rights cannot be protected. the worth of a nation is the worth of the individuals constituting it. ‘‘the right to fair trial, the right of liberty and security of person, the right to freedom of expression, the right to redress and the right not to be tortured would all be at risk under poto,’’ is a fear expressed by amnesty international. law minister arun jaitley said, poto will clearly lay out for the police, the framework in which they can operate, thus they will not be able to misuse it. i disagree. similar repressive laws in the past have been used by the police to circumvent their usual course of probe. how do we deal with terrorism then? the nhrc says, a proper strengthening of the crime investigation and prosecution machinery and criminal justice system is needed. if there are a large number of acquittals today, it is not for the lack of laws, but for the lack of proper utilisation of these laws, lack of proper investigation and prosecution, and lack of adequate number of courts to try the offences. unless this root problem is readdressed, adopting draconian laws will only lead to their grave misuse.