The Hindu : Front Page : Cabinet approval for repeal of POTA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 18, 2004

Front Page

Cabinet approval for repeal of POTA

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 17. More than six months after being in office, the Central Government today announced a flurry of policy decisions, all intended to firmly align the United Progressive Alliance Government with the letter and spirit of the Common Minimum Programme. The centre-piece of today's "policy blitzkrieg" is the end of the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) regime.

A number of social initiatives and economic decisions were also finalised. These include a three per cent increase in Dearness Allowance for Central Government servants and a similar relief for pensioners. Also, the Cabinet gave its approval for setting up a national commission to suggest measures to promote enterprises in the unorganised sector.

`Core group' meets

Later in the day, the leadership "core group" — consisting of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh and the political secretary to the Congress president, Ahmed Patel — met at the Prime Minister's residence. The "core group" expressed satisfaction with the content — and more important — with the style of announcements.

According to a decision-maker, "if we can borrow the cricket terminology, today the Prime Minister was like a mature batsman who takes the guard a second time, after scoring a half-century, before settling down to move on to the century." Today's blitzkrieg is being attributed, by knowledgeable sources, to the Prime Minister's intense personal initiative.

Not only did the Government act decisively, but it also saw to it that it appeared to be acting decisively. For the first time, three Cabinet Ministers were out there simultaneously briefing the media. While the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, detailed the reasons and the rationale for the changes in the POTA regime, the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, and the Information and Broadcasting Minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, held a full-fledged press conference to announce the other Cabinet decisions.

After today's decision-making exercise, the Prime Minister can be said to have found his rhythm.

Another round later

Today's decisions are being described as only a partial unveiling of the Government's policy initiatives. Another round of decisions is scheduled for the Cabinet meeting on September 29.

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