MPs on autopilot

Bills have to be passed. That's what legislators are meant to do. But theyare also required to read and understand the implications of th...

Bills have to be passed. That8217;s what legislators are meant to do. But theyare also required to read and understand the implications of the variousBills that are presented in the House, before they acquiesce to theirpassing. Some Bills may appear innocuous at a cursory glance but are reallynot so. Under the Rajiv Gandhi dispensation, the government tried to pushthe notorious anti-defamation Bill through Parliament.

It could well have become law if some Opposition MPs hadn8217;t displayed amodicum of alertness and scrutinised it more thoroughly. The amazinglyfacile manner in which the Bill to amend the Indian Explosives Act so as toprovide for capital punishment for those wielding RDX, PETN and HMX, wentthrough the Lok Sabha on Thursday indicates that much of legislating thesedays seems to be done on autopilot. If this amendment finds favour in theUpper House, anyone deemed to have caused an explosion using this specialcategory of explosives could be led to the gallows.

The death penalty is to be deployed in the rarest of rare cases. Thisnewspaper has argued, time and again, that extending its scope arbitrarilyis neither in the cause of justice, nor will it increase national security.It, in fact, creates a false sense of security which could work to thecontrary. Hardened terrorists who are prepared to give up their lives fortheir cause are hardly likely to be deterred by the prospect of being hangedshould they be apprehended.

After all, the assassins of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh were prepared toget themselves blasted to smithereens in order to achieve their goals. Theonly way they can be defeated is by careful vigilance, popular alertness andcertain punishment.

The question is, does the new amendment have the necessary safeguards toensure that it is not misused? Going by the scant information on the Billavailable with the media, this doesn8217;t appear to be the case. If someunscrupulous elements wish to plant RDX on an innocent person and implicatehim or her in an explosion, can that person escape the noose? It isprecisely for this reason that constitutional experts and legal luminarieshave expressed their apprehensions over Home Minister L.K. Advani8217;scatch-all panacea for all ills 8212; the deployment of capital punishment.

Terrorism, whatever its form and manifestation, is an assault on humanrights, and the nation is united in the need to defeat the perpetrators ofsuch acts. The Home Ministry in order to protect the human rights ofcitizens is therefore bound to take all the necessary steps it deems fit toprevent and fight such acts as well as destroy the means terrorists employto further their reign of terror. But while doing this, it must not put injeopardy the human rights of its citizens.

In other words, the State has an obligation to combat terrorism, but must atthe same time act in accordance with accepted standards of human rights. Itis this principle that separates a democratic state from a despotic one.