LS clears Bill giving NIA more teeth

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 15

As the Lok Sabha passed a Bill today empowering the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the government said it won’t allow the anti-terror law to be misused in the name of religion.

Home Minister Amit Shah gave the assurance in the Lower House after some MPs expressed apprehensions of the National Investigation Agency Amendment Bill being misused to target people of a particular religion.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government has no intention of misusing the law. Nor will we allow its misuse,” Shah said before the Bill was passed with a voice vote after AIMIM member Asaduddin Owaisi demanded a division of votes. Shah promptly supported the call, saying: “The country should know who stands with terrorism and who does not.”

The Bill survived with 278 votes in favour and six against it, but the BJP’s move at division caught the Congress, NC and DMK off guard as these parties had objected to various provisions of the law earlier. Congress MP Manish Tewari had argued that the Bill had the potential to turn India into a police state.

So when Speaker Om Birla ordered the division, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhry said: “What’s the need for a division? We are supporting the Bill.” Congress had to ultimately vote for the Bill. While Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were absent, Shah attacked the UPA for repealing The Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), 2002, for political reasons.

“The Congress took the decision to repeal POTA in the very first Cabinet meeting in 2004. This wasn’t the right decision. POTA was repealed not because of misuse but because of vote bank politics. The result was, between 2004 and 2008 terrorism rose so much that the same Congress had to bring the NIA Act. Had POTA not been repealed, perhaps Mumbai terror attacks would not have happened,” Shah said provoking strong reactions from Congress benches.

He also accused the UPA of letting off real culprits of the Samjhauta blast and arresting innocent people and said: “We will have a debate on this.”

Shah rejected Owaisi and DMK leader A Raja’s insinuations that anti-terror laws tended to target Muslims. “That’s not true. Anti-terror laws were used against LTEE also,” Shah noted.

Read: Govt says Bill in national interest; Cong calls it bid to turn India into ‘police state’