{"id":327,"date":"2004-06-08T21:35:28","date_gmt":"2004-06-09T01:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/2004\/06\/08\/president-calls-for-repeal-of-pota-a"},"modified":"2004-06-08T21:35:28","modified_gmt":"2004-06-09T01:35:28","slug":"president-calls-for-repeal-of-pota-and-new-law-on-communal-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/2004\/06\/08\/president-calls-for-repeal-of-pota-and-new-law-on-communal-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"President Calls for Repeal of POTA and New Law on Communal Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The President of India has declared the government’s intention<\/A><\/FONT> to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA):<\/FONT><\/P>
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The President reiterates the Manmohan Singh Government’s commitment to do away with the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). It asserts that “while there can be no compromise on the fight against terrorism,” the Government believes that the existing laws should be adequate.” Consequently, it “proposes to repeal POTA.” The Address does not indicate any time frame for the repeal.<\/EM><\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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POTA is the newest addition in a long line of draconian law in India.  Check out Amnesty International’s briefing<\/A><\/FONT> on the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, before it became an Act.  Amnesty outlines its concerns, ranging from the vague definitions of membership and support for “terrorist organizations,” the lack of pre-trial safeguards, and insufficient guarantees of rights at trial, among other issues.  In an article<\/A> <\/FONT>reacting to a recent Supreme Court judgment on POTA, Rakesh Shukla discusses the lack of accountability in the Centre’s classification of an organization as a terrorist organization; the judgment’s disregard for the right against self-incrimination; and the capability of using such draconian laws for political purposes, among other issues.<\/FONT><\/P>
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The President also addressed<\/A><\/FONT> a potential law on communal violence:<\/FONT><\/P>
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The President commits his Government to fighting “the forces of communalism,” which manifested themselves in Gujarat. The Manmohan Singh Government will undertake to adopt a “model law to deal with communal violence and encourage States to adopt it” as part of its resolve “to promote and maintain communal peace and harmony so that minorities feel completely secure.”<\/EM><\/FONT><\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
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Despite these motions at addressing pogroms in India, the Prime Minister appointed<\/A><\/FONT> two perpetrators of the 1984 pogroms against Sikhs as ministers, in the face of protests from survivors.  Any bill must fulfill the survivors’ international rights to knowledge, justice and reparations if it hopes for true and lasting reconciliation.  It must acknowledge and remember the violations suffered by individuals, with a full investigation into the facts; provide an effective remedy, encompassing an investigation of the abuses and prosecution of perpetrators; and grant full reparations, including restitution, compensation and rehabilitation.  The government must also commit to guarantees of non-repetition.<\/FONT><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President of India has declared the government’s intention to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA): The President reiterates the Manmohan Singh Government’s commitment to do away with the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). It asserts that “while there can be no compromise on the fight against terrorism,” the Government believes that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jaskaran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}