New Delhi: The Lok Sabha passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill today after a heated debate. The law stipulates that individuals can be termed as terrorism if they are found to be aiding terror activities.
Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, countered the opposition attack against the Bill by saying that tough laws are required to end terrorism said that the law would not be misused and the states’ powers will not be encroached upon.
Congress and several opposition parties staged a walk out when their demand for sending the Bill to a standing committee was not accepted by the government.
Amit Shah, claimed that the UAPA law was actually enacted by the Congress in 1967 and made stringent during their rule. The present government is only bringing an amendment to the law. He said that by enacting the law the Congress did the right thing.
He said, “The law was enacted in 1967 by a Congress government and amendments made to it in 2004, 2008 and 2013 when Congress was in power. Who made the law stringent? What you did was right, what we are doing is also right.”
The Home Minister said that the law makes it possible to designate an individual as terrorist for his links with terrorism. He told that it was needed to root out terror from the country. He reminded that many nations including the US, China, Pakistan, and Israel all had such laws. Even UN and European Union can designate individual as terrorist for having links with terrorism.
He also told the House that the terrorist Yasin Bhatkal belonging to Indian Mujahideen had been under the radar for many years but could not be nabbed earlier because of the lack of such a law.
Yasin Bhatkal would have been caught before he carried out the terror attacks if he was designated as a terrorist long before.
One major reason for the need of such a law is that when one terror organization is banned, it would just rename itself and continue to function. With this law coming into effect, those who finance terror activities will be termed as terrorists and can be arrested which will widens the scope of battling the menace of terrorism.
The Home Minister also warned those supporting Urban Naxals and said that the government will not be sympathetic to them.
He warned, “In this country, a lot of people involved in social work are working respectably, the police are not fond of catching them, but we don’t have any sympathy for those who work for Urban Maoism.”
When the opposition cried for sending the Bill to a Standing Committee and staged a walk out, Amit Shah responded that they were doing it out of fear of losing their vote bank and said that the government cannot do anything about it.
