[Reader-list] Attack on Indian Parliament
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
shuddha at sarai.net
Sat Dec 8 01:22:34 IST 2001
Many people on the reader list might have heard by now that the Parliament
Building in New Delhi has been attacked. News reports from the television
here say that five people wearing military uniforms entered the Parliament
House complex and opened indiscriminate fire.Are Four security guards, and
four of the assialants are reported dead, one of the assailants is missing
and there are also reports of injuries to one of the journalists present on
the scene.
The interior minister L.K. Advani has described the incident as a "fedayeen"
or suicide attack by terrorists. There are no reports of anyone having
claimed responsibility for the incident as of now.
Incidentally the Parliament which is in session, is due to discuss the
Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) which has been tabled by the
government in the wake of the events of September 11 and their aftermath.
POTO which civil liberties groups here have described as one of the most
draconian pieces of legislation ever drafted has met with stiff resistance
even from parties in opposition (the Congress, among them) - which have
themselves during their tenure in power ruled with the help of very
draconian previous legislations - such as the TADA or Terrorist and Disturbed
Areas Act . POTO is viewed as being even more of an attack on civil liberties
than TADA.
POTO bans a number of organisations that it declares to be terrorist. These
are mainly separatist militant groups in Kashmir and in the North Eastern
States of India, Islamist student groups and more recently two Maoist groups
- The Peoples War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre.
What is particularly salient as a feature of POTO is that anyone can be
detained in preventive custody on the suspicion of belonging to such groups,
or of their "front organisations" or of aiding and abetting the aims of these
groups of their members. Suspects can be held in custody without trial for a
period of 30 days in police remand and upti six moinths in judicial custody ,
without being charged. Confessions made beofre police officers during this
period of detention are admissable as evidence,. Leaving ample scope for the
use of torture (especially of non invasive forms of torture) to extract
confessions or information.
The mere withholding of information to the law enforcement agencies is deemed
an offence, although the provision that journalists have to disclose their
sources is being amended under political pressure from the opposition.
However, a suspect is required to furnish information, including biological
samples, (blood, urine, etc. samples) and refusal to do so, or obstruction in
the process of obtaining samples is deemed as being prejudical to the trial
prospects of the suspect.
Further, POTO also makes provision for a wide variety of instruments by which
surveillance, of all communications (telephonic, electronic, internet,
postal) is made possible. A police officer of a certain rank may under POTO
intercept communications in order to furnish grounds for the interecption of
communication.
All these, and other provisions have made POTO extremely unpalatable, and
difficult to defend, even for politicals otherwise accustomed to defending
repressive measures as being necessary in the interests of national security
in India
However, in the wake of today's attack on Parliament, it is unlikely that
POTO will not go through. The opposition will find it difficult to sustain
their protests against the attack on civil liberties that POTO represents.
The attack on Parliament itself is too "spectacular" to ignore. In other
words, we might as well realise that in all likelihood that the ordinance,
will become an act.
The attacks on the world trade centre came at the right time, to allow for a
massive deployment of military force, and the deployment of a new regime of
security apparatuses all over the world.
Similarly, the attack on the Indian Parliament may be seen, in the long run
as being perfect in terms of timing. Now POTO will become POTA, the
ordincance will be an act, and massive state repression will be given
democratic sanction.
One might say that the designs of the state and what we are accustomed to
hear being described as acts of terrorism are well suited to each others
purposes.
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