The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Sans POTA, it will be vacuum in the fight against terrorism: Jayalalithaa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 23, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Sans POTA, it will be vacuum in the fight against terrorism: Jayalalithaa

By Our Special Correspondent

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, declaring open a renovated police training college at the inauguration of a national workshop on terrorism held in the Secretariat in Chennai on Wednesday. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI, SEPT. 22. The repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) has now denuded the State Governments of their powers to combat terrorism, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, said here today.

In its absence, law enforcement agencies would not have any special law to effectively tackle terrorism and extremism. They would have to rely on archaic laws, "which have repeatedly proved inadequate, even to handle serious and heinous crimes", she said in her inaugural address to a two-day national workshop on "Terrorism in India: evolving patterns and police response".

A special law such as the POTA should have been allowed to remain to effectively defend the country's territorial integrity from the onslaught of terrorists, Ms. Jayalalithaa said.

"I do not see much point in the assurance that necessary provisions will be added to existing laws to compensate for the repeal of POTA. In fact, such a stand merely shows ambivalence and vacillation and only strengthens our stand that the repeal is ill-considered and has left behind a vacuum in our defence against terrorism".

Sea change after 9/11

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, global security and the internal security environment in India underwent a sea change. Terrorist activities were spreading disaffection in many parts of the country and no State was safe from disruptive violence which banned organisations let loose. Their extraordinary reach and influence could be countered only with a special law such as the POTA.

Intelligence exchange

Ms. Jayalalithaa also stressed the need for the intelligence machinery adopting a new approach to effectively deal with terrorism.

"A failure of intelligence has invariably been noticed in the post-mortem of various violent terrorist acts". There was need for coordination between the Central and State agencies in exchange of intelligence. As terrorism had multifarious dimensions, it was important that the State police, the Intelligence Bureau, the Customs and internal revenue departments, the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Coast Guard and the Research and Analysis Wing were brought together under an institutionalised set-up, with an IT-driven database, and information sharing protocol. It should be under the Chief Minister at the State level and under the Home Minister or the Cabinet Committee on Security at the Union Government level.

"If we do not devise a comprehensive strategy to counter terrorism now, the world would necessarily revert to the state of nature", she said.

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