Pushed by ally, govt moves a bit on POTA

However, an assurance could be extracted out of Singh only after the DMK and the AIADMK members created a scene in the House as they traded charges of misuse of POTA by the Jayalalithaa Government in Tamil Nadu, especially with regards to the arrest of MDMK leader Y. Gopalaswamy.

Senior DMK member Viduthalai Virumbi said that his party workers were being threatened with POTA on a daily basis: ‘‘The MPs who voted for POTA to fight terrorism and anti-social elements were themselves being targeted by the state government and the administration was preparing to misuse it against more MPs.’’ The charge was vociferiously contested by the AIADMK members.

At this point, Singh said: ‘‘The demand for a review committee on POTA cases is being considered by the government.’’

In a reciprocal gesture, Opposition members from the Congress, Pranab Mukherjee and Kapil Sibal, withdrew their planned amendments to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address to the joint session of Parliament.

The Opposition did not accept Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s arguement that the Centre was not responsible for the misuse of the POTA provisions by the state governments.

Mukherjee said the assurance of the government that POTA will not be misused was meant for the entire nation and not just Union Territories. ‘‘The government cannot abdicate its responsibility to the nation,’’ he said.