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The "Pota" of Tada

Ah! They're at it again. The birth pangs of the grandson of TADA has brought forth all the expected furore from our secular politicians of every hue...

While addressing a rally at Coimbatore, jointly organised by the CPI and CPI-M, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan described the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (passed by the Tamil Nadu government on the last day of the budget session), as a law "blacker than TADA". He appealed to the state government to repeal it, saying it would infringe upon the "Fundamental Rights of the people".

The CPI, CPI-M, the Indian National League, the Puthiya Tamizhagam (the dalit party led by Dr K Krishnasamy), and both factions of the Pattali Makkal Katchi vehemently opposed the Bill proposed by the TN government. Needless to add, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam has also decided to fight "tooth and nail" to get POTA repealed.

Comrade Bardhan's Fundamental Rights... Hmm, let's talk about the rights of the twenty-eight young lives -- all of them RSS, BJP and Hindu Munnani activists -- who were murdered by Islamic fundamentalist groups in Tamil Nadu since 1990. Let's talk about the rights of the state Hindu Munnani president who was also slaughtered. In none of these murders have the culprits been apprehended or charge-sheeted or brought before the court of law.

The conflict began in the 1980s, with the DMK government's decision to name the Dindigal district of Tamil Nadu as Quaide- Millat -- in memory of Mohammed Ismail, president of the Muslim League. It was opposed by the Sangh Parivar on the grounds that the Muslim League was responsible for Partition. They suggested that, instead, the district be named after a Muslim leader like Seethakkadi who was highly respected by the people.

Against this backdrop, Muslims started mass conversions of scheduled caste Hindus, the first of which took place at Meenakshipuram. To mobilise public opinion against such conversions, the RSS organised public meetings, conferences and gatherings. Which, of course, was considered to be -- and reported as -- Very Bad Karma... Apparently, the protection of Hinduism is to be avoided at all costs: Hindus must always generously give, and give all -- even their numbers.

On the other hand, the Hindu Munnani's celebrating the Ganesh festival to arouse Hindu solidarity was considered an "anti-Muslim activity" -- not only by Muslims, but also all our secular parties and individuals: There was a danger that the Dalits might join the Hindu mainstream... Karunanidhi, in fact, derided the devotion to "the north Indian god."

It was in this background that the 28 murders occurred. The authorities concerned knew that ISI-backed Muslim fundamentalists were behind the murders. But no action was taken against them. Arms were being stored in the state and powerful bombs were used to blow up the RSS and the Hindu Munnani offices. Of the 14 accused (all belonging to the Al Umma or the Jihad Committee) in the August 1993 bomb blast at the RSS's TN headquarters -- which claimed ten Hindu lives -- six are now on bail.

The then minister of state for home affairs, Rajesh Pilot, had stated at the time of the RSS-office blast in 1993 that large quantities of RDX were being transported into TN. In 1996, when the Kerala police captured 70 pipe-bombs in Malapuram district, intelligence reports had stated that agents from TN had gone to Kerala to train their counterparts to manufacture pipe-bombs. Central and state intelligence had known that top leaders of the BJP and Hindu Munnani were on the hit-list of Muslim groups.

The presence of Islamic fundamentalists in Madurai came to light when Hindu Munnani leader Rajagopalan was murdered in 1995. The murder was followed by a blast inside the Meenakshi Amman temple. Though five Al-Umma members were suspected to be involved in the incidents, only three were arrested, of whom one escaped. Police suspicion was further aroused with the murder of jailor Jayapragasam, who blocked the supply of money and other prohibited items into the cell where the fundamentalists were lodged. Then, a sophisticated pipe-bomb planted on a railway track near Vilangudi confirmed the suspicion that Islamic terrorists indeed had a base in Madurai.

During Jayalalitha's regime, when the police attempted to flush out the kingpins of an extremist group in the Muslim pockets of Coimbatore, they were said to have "let loose a reign of terror". The state unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, naturally, came out with an indictment of the police and the government.

....And so things took root unchecked, till, a few years later, we had sophisticated bombs ripping through three Chennai trains, killing scores and injuring hundreds. And then came the big daddy in Coimbatore, aimed at martyring Mr L K Advani, which left 64 dead and hundreds injured.

Chief Minister Karunanidhi, alarmed, at last, by the spurt in bomb explosions and seizure of explosives all over the state -- and not to forget that now a nationalist government hung the Damoclean sword from the Centre -- decided to bring in the special Bill to curb terrorist activities. The Act, which is yet to get the governor's assent, fulfills a demand voiced by the BJP and its allied organisations after the serial blasts at Coimbatore on February 14.

Designed along the lines of TADA, POTA proposes designated courts for trying offences under it and extends the period of remand from the usual 15 days to 60. It has measures like admissibility of confessions, stringent evidentiary constraints for obtaining bail, shifting of the burden of proof from the prosecution to the accused, "in camera" trials, and stipulation of a minimum prison term of three years and the maximum, a death penalty.

All of which, but of course, does not meet the standards of our secular politicians and media-persons...

CPI legislator K Subbarayan feared "there could be grave social consequences if the law was enforced. It would aggravate the volatile communal situation in some sensitive pockets in the state." Meaning, Muslims would be arrested from Muslim areas, and all hell would break loose.

MLA Latheef pleaded vehemently in the House for referring the Bill to a select committee, as "such stringent measures should not be hastily passed without a careful and detailed consideration" while arguing that some provisions were unconstitutional. This, despite the fact that all provisions of even the TADA had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Basically, the argument is that such "draconian" legislative measures should not be used to curb an evil that was born out of social tensions...

Which leaves me totally flabbergasted. Firstly, it's these Nehruvians and commies who set class against class and community against community by pandering to one at the cost of the other. Then, they fanned the flames to further secure their vote banks. And when the "social tensions" became so set that there's nothing to be done but pay violence in its own coin -- they balk from the evil as if they have no hand in it!

In not a single instance of the murders of Hindus, did the leaders of the CPI, CPI-M or the DMK speak up about the "Fundamental Rights of the people". Don't you ever wonder why? Not one of them has ever come forward to appeal for commissions investigating the murders of Hindus. There would be no Srikrishna Commission if there weren't any Memons... And when there is a TADA or a POTA to do justice to -- Hindu, Christian or Muslim -- victims of terrorist attacks, they still oppose anti-terrorism Acts "tooth and nail"...

Let's talk about the Fundamental Rights of the 126 activists, most of them from the BJP, RSS and ABVP, who have been mercilessly murdered in Kerala over the last 12 years. In most cases, the culprits are alleged to be closely connected with the CITU or the CPI-M in Kerala...

In March, the targeting of BJP workers by Naxalites led to an outcry in Barkatha, a backward caste-dominated area in Jharkhand. A demand for providing security to BJP workers was raised by BJP MLA Khagendra Prasad following the killing of two party workers by Naxalites. Both the deceased were killed in broad daylight. That isn't an isolated case. In July 1997, BJP activist Ravi Das was killed in Gang Pacho village; another party member, Bablu Singh, was lynched in Chunia village of Garhwa district on August 19; on August 5, BJP worker Ambika Bharti was shot dead. All, the work of leftist ultras...

The question arises whether state governments should take necessary steps to check and eradicate anti-national and anti- social activities. And if so, how? Is it not the basic responsibility of the governments to uphold the right to life and property of *every* citizen, irrespective of his political or religious persuasion? If the states fail in their duty, what are the remedies open to those who are the targets of such assaults?

But you see, the problem is, should a stringent law like TADA or POTA take hold and show results in one part of the country, the "menace" could well spread everywhere. And the groups largely to suffer would be Islamic fundamentalists and Communist extremists... And there go the vote banks...

The leftist legislative and opinion-making scum *know* that there's no such thing as a Hindu terrorist. Which is why they will never let us have a severe law to crush the terrorism taking root in India. After all, whether in Kashmir or Bihar or TN or Andhra, what does it matter if there are a few Hindus less here and there? Fundamental Rights are applicable only to minorities.

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Varsha Bhosle