New Delhi | Wednesday
INDIA’S belligerent opposition made a spirited effort Wednesday to poke new holes into a contentious anti-terror bill, warning that the government could inflict abuse on political rivals and muslims if the draft becomes law.
The opposition drew unexpected support when a key ally of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s coalition government lashed out at its ideological big brother, the premier’s hindu nationalist BJP party, for its hardline anti-muslim stance.
The opposition forced an adjournment in parliament over the decade’s worst sectarian riots and gave vent to its fears that the bill called the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) would be misused against India’s minority muslims if endorsed as law.
The Samajwadi (Socialist) Party, which draws crucial support from muslims, charged Vajpayee’s hindu nationalist-led government with trying to divide India with laws such as POTO and demanded an explanation.
”Not a single rioter has been arrested in Gujarat and only muslims were shot dead (by the police),” said opposition MP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the regional RJD party, which backed the Samajwadi’s move.
”At this rate the country cannot be saved. The members in the government are traitors,” he shouted, forcing the brief adjournment of the lower house.
India’s bloodiest riots in a decade were sparked off when a muslim mob torched a train carrying hindu activists from a disputed religious site.
Fifty-eight people lost their lives in the train carnage and almost 700 others, mostly muslims, died in ensuing clashes in Gujarat state, as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological vanguard of the BJP, warned that Muslims must toe the line in overwhelmingly hindu India. – Sapa-AFP