India’s minister for internal security, Rajesh Pilot, said at a meeting with Must in representatives at Bombay-last week that TADA would be withdrawn from April 1995, when it comes Up for renewal in Parliament “if it is found to be misused by the state governments.” It is obvious that the promise made by the minister is only conditional. This fascist Jaw will stay if the Central government is convinced that it is no longer being “misused.” India’s interpretation of its “misuse” is peculiar. It was brought about to counter “antinational activities” in Punjab and it was subsequently extended to India as. a whole because “the Punjab militants were active in other states as well,” the minister argued, Pilot’s logic is that the law is deemed with “anti-national” people of Punjab, In other words; it is meant to be applied to Sikhs. The objects find reasons incorporated in the law hypocritically do no mention Sikhs as the targets but in practice it has been applied to Sikhs. According to figures collected by People’s Union for Civil Liberties and the People’s Union for Civil Rights as many as 15269 persons were arrested in Punjab alone since the law was enacted in 1985. In later period, the notorious law which normally denies bail to the accused was used by the Indian authorities in other states where more than 38000 persons were arrested. Not all of them were Sikhs Most detainees were Muslims, Pilot’s assurance at his meeting with Muslims clearly shows the communal bias behind the application of the law, if the experience in Punjab is not considered sufficient to pinpoint the bias.
It was the ruling Congress(I)’s minorities call which had called for the review of the law some two months ago, Later, the government’s minorities commission voiced similar Sentiments and said that the law had been used against members of the minorities. In other words, against communities other than Hindus. Not to be left behind, the Indian national human rights commission, too, decided to approach the Supreme Court for declaring the law violate of the Indian constitution, Of late, several Indian newspapers have written editorials endorsing Pilot’s statement. Does not all this show the assertion of the power by the various pillars of India’s democracy? No one in his right senses will give credit to the ruling Congress(I)’s minorities cell, the minorities commission, the NHRC or a few newspapers which wrote editorials recently of being independent of the Indian establishment. There appears to be a feeling in the government Punjab that TADA has lost its utility as no new arrests are taking place under it in Punjab. In any case, the government’s purpose will be served by other laws that are as draconian as TADA. Has not Dr. Sohan Singh been arrested under national security act rather than TADA? Far from being useful to the ruling party, TADA was alienating Muslims and other “communities, With the approach of elections in several States, it is in the Congress(I)’s electoral interests to do away with TADA and to win back Muslims and other vote banks. These communities have sizeable votes. They could influence results in significant segments. As such, the campaign for withdrawing TADA has been orchestrated by the ruling party for political reasons and not become that country’s human rights conscience has suddenly started pricking, The withdrawal of a law is the prerogative of a democratic government, But in India, the government is irretrievably mixed up with the armed forces, particularly the police, which is opposed to the abrogation of TADA. The Indian government has to do the balancing trick between its pathetic dependence on the police top brass and its political interests in the forthcoming elections. Hence the guide of public campaign for the withdrawal of the fascist law.
But it is unlikely that TADA will be so easily done away with in Punjab and Kashmir, If it is done, the government will have to find ways to keep thousands of Sikhism jail or to release them. Although the Indian Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of TADA, it has, nevertheless, given a Small relief to its victims in respect of grant of bail, after a person has been detained for six months and regular case has “not been brought up in courts by the police. This is another ‘compulsion for the Indian government to tone down the ‘rigors of TADA. India will have the additional benefit of ‘showing to the west that the latter’s appeals on the human rights issue had been heeded.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 26, 1994
