"When you talk of fighting against terror with a constitutionally vulnerable instrument, BJP puts forth some questions to you," said BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, while asking Prime Minister as to why POTA was repealed and why MCOCA was allowed in Maharashtra and its replica not permitted in Gujarat.
The BJP also raised objections to UPA government fostering fresh ties with Pakistan despite its "failure" to act against Mumbai terror attack perpetrators who continued to roam around freely in that country.
"Why was POTA repealed. POTA was an instrument that was needed by the security forces in the fight against terror. POTA has been declared to be constitutionally valid by the Supreme Court. Yet in your declaration you said we shall repeal POTA... The fight against terror was compromised at the altar of vote-bank politics," Prasad said.
He said NCTC was a body created by an executive order under the overall control of the Intelligence Bureau having complete secrecy and no Parliamentary accountability. "That is why this issue is very serious," he said.
Terming NCTC as an attack on the country's federal structure, Prasad said, "BJP firmly believes that there is no contradiction between the fight against terror and the respect for the federal polity of our Constitutional democracy. Both can comfortably co-exist. The fight against terror would be fought purposefully only with cooperation, in coordination and active involvement of the state government and not by trampling upon their rights by the central government," he said. MORE
