Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

Government not soft on terror: PM

Bs_logoImage
Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Jan 20 2013 | 10:12 PM IST

Under attack for the way internal security has been handled, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said his government was not soft on fighting terrorism and indicated that it was open to the idea of bringing a tougher law to deal with it.      

"There is no question of the government being soft on terrorism," Prime Minister said at the concluding day of the two-day Governor's Conference being held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.      

The Prime Minister regretted that the public debate on terrorism has tended to be driven by politics and centre on certain laws enacted or repealed by different governments.       

"Our government has no fixed, inflexible or ideological view in this regard," he said, adding, government was "actively considering" legislation to further strengthen the anti-terrorism law in line with the global consensus on the fight against terrorism.      

Singh did not make any reference to anti-terror law POTA repealed by the UPA government.

BJP has been strongly pitching for enactment of POTA-type tough law to act as a deterrent.     
 
Within the government and ruling Congress, there have been mixed voices with one section favouring a tougher law, while some others felt the existing laws were strong enough to combat the menace.      

Singh admitted that the recent bomb blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Delhi indicated that "there are still vast gaps in intelligence. These need to be overcome."       

Ruling out establishment of a central agency to coordinate counter-terrorism strategy, he said instead there was need for better coordination among the existing agencies.

Also Read

First Published: Sep 17 2008 | 6:00 PM IST

Next Story