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Editorial
Hurling a law, winging a shoe
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India's new
home minister, P Chidambaram, focusses on security, police,
terror law but what he should be doing is to see how social incohesiveness, economic disparities, growing haves-havenots
gap, minority persecution, anti-women policies and
neo-liberal capital is pushing vast teeming
millions on to the margins from where some slip into terrorism. |
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At a time when
the world is celebrating the 60th year of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights,
India has
tripped, and tripped badly. It has brought in a law under pressure
from the right wing BJP which is a further assault on human rights,
but perhaps some fault lies with those also who think they are
fighting strong nation states.
There is no
excuse for terrorism against innocent citizens. Acts like the Mumbai
attack which claimed the lives of completely innocent people have
given forces like the BJP a fillip to pressurize the Manmohan Singh
government and hence the new law.
Now,
New Delhi
has set in motion the process to seek Parliament’s nod on its war
against terror with the introduction of a bill to create a National
Investigation Agency (NIA) to exclusively deal with terror attacks
and is also planning to have a new tougher law.
The National
Investigating Agency Bill, 2008, when passed, would for the first
time in the country allow officers of the agency to freely crack
terror cases and bring culprits to book.
Imagine the
security personnel cast in the mould of Punjab Police using this
law. You think the terrorists will be quivering in their shoes? Most
happy will be those who look for opportunities to create more
terrorists. Laws like these, and their misuse which is written into
the subtext of politics in
India,
is guaranteed to only produce more terrorists.
The Indian
establishment is well aware of how POTA was misused. Whatever gives
it an idea that the new law of the new Home Minister is foolproof
against mischief?
The bill
provides for overriding powers to NIA officers “of or above the rank
of sub inspector” throughout
India — powers
equivalent to the officer-in-charge of a police station in the area
the officer might be at the time of investigation.
The NIA would be
empowered to take over investigation of eight specifically mentioned
terror-related crimes including hijacking, any terror attack, any
violation of the Atomic Energy Act and anything against the law on
weapons of mass destruction.
The bill
empowers the Centre to hand over the investigation of a terror
attack on its own. In addition, if states want to get any offence
investigated by the NIA they would be able to do so.
In case of a
terror attack or a related offence, the officer-in-charge of the
concerned police station would be required to immediately inform the
state government, which in turn shall forward the report to the
Centre as soon as possible, the bill says.
The Centre would
have to decide within 15 days whether the offence committed is fit
to be handed over to the agency.
 We all know what
the Armed Forces have done under the garb of the Special Powers Act.
The women in north east of
India had shamed
the entire country when they were forced to protest nude. Which one
of us had not hung his head in shame?
Under the new
law, those accused of terror would be tried in special courts on a
day-to-day basis, with the agency having its own prosecutors to
elaborate the charges. In case the special court wants it, the trial
would be held in-camera — meaning — it would not be open to public.
Now these are
all recipes for making those who are targeted as a result of the
misuse very very angry, angry enough to blow themselves up. Or
making their younger brother or children so angry.
The man who
winged the shoes at President Bush was one such angry man. And he
was subjected to much less than what such a law can do.
When the world
is going through times of terror, the need is to deal with terrorism
in such a way that we yield no ground and allow no new recruitment
to the other side. We must not bring in laws that help argue the
terrorists’ viewpoint. Between Bush and Obama, the world has learnt
many lessons. Why is
India
adamant on not unlearning the wrong ones?
17 December
2008
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