NEW DELHI: Two Cabinet ministers, C.K. Jaffer Sharief and Ghulam Nabi Azad have threatened to resign if the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act is not so rapped and given the Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, time till May 23 to take a decision, May 23 is the date on which the TADA is due to lapse. Highly reliable sources said the two ministers had actually put in their papers but they had decided not to press them in view of the Prime Minister’ s reiteration at the Congress Working Committee meeting that he stood by his statement in Parliament in review the controversial legislation.
When contacted, Azad stuck to his views about the TADA but denied that he had submitted his resignation. “After the Prime Minister’s clarification at the CWC the issue is over. But my position on the TADA remains,” he said.
Sharief was not available for comment but sources close to him denied any knowledge of the resignation.
The division in the Cabinet over the fate of the TADA has come into the open more than once. Only on Saturday, Sharief reiterated at a function in New Delhi that the legislation should go. “I will not only resign from the government but will also see how this government will run without repealing TADA,” he said.
The sources said of the four Muslim ministers in the Council of Ministers, two M. Sayeed and Salman Khurshed have chosen to maintain discreet silence over what should be done with the TADA. A majority of ministers was nevertheless in favor of scrapping the Act.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 12, 1995
