New Delhi, Sep 3 (UNI) Senior BJP leader and noted lawyer Arun Jaitley has defended the ''proactive policy'' adopted by the National Democratic Alliance government towards terrorism, claiming every single act of terror during the BJP-led coalition's rule was ''tracked and all involved arrested''.
''Be it through legislation, upgradation of security agencies or the system, the NDA government proved efficient in handling terrorism,'' he said in an interview to a private TV channel while criticising the UPA for having a ''soft approach'' towards the menace.
He said the Manmohan Singh government sent a ''very wrong'' signal to the separatist forces by withdrawing an anti-terror law like POTA.
Mr Jaitley, however, defended that it was unfair to gauge the NDA's performance on the basis of Kandahar incident.
''It was not an easy task for the government to decide whether to free three terrorists in lieu of 150 hostages.
The responsibility was of the government and not any TV channel.
Don't forget even Israel had many a times released terrorists in return for hostages,'' he said.
Elaborating on his party's repeated demand for the repeal of POTA, Mr Jaitley explained it was not just the question of reviving the anti-terror law. ''The real issue is the attitude of the Government. The NDA did have a policy to tackle terrorism ...Zero tolerance, giving the security and intelligence free hand were some of them.'' ''Take for instance Akshardham incident. In the last five years where does terrorism stand in Gujarat? The intelligence system there is now in tune. It is the BJP's government there. We gave a free hand to the intelligence and security agencies,'' he said.
Mr Jaitley rejected the charge that a particular community was targeted under POTA. ''Such a charge was never made when we speak of ULFA or Naxals,'' he said.
To a specific question that the maximum number of cases under POTA were registered against Muslims, he said during the Punjab unrest the maximum number of TADA cases were registered against Sikhs.
The BJP leader also defended the party's opposition to 123 Agreement, saying their concern was releated to nuclear supplies and testing facilities. ''It does not mean that the BJP is against the US and against strategic ties,'' he clarified.
UNI
''Be it through legislation, upgradation of security agencies or the system, the NDA government proved efficient in handling terrorism,'' he said in an interview to a private TV channel while criticising the UPA for having a ''soft approach'' towards the menace.
He said the Manmohan Singh government sent a ''very wrong'' signal to the separatist forces by withdrawing an anti-terror law like POTA.
Mr Jaitley, however, defended that it was unfair to gauge the NDA's performance on the basis of Kandahar incident.
''It was not an easy task for the government to decide whether to free three terrorists in lieu of 150 hostages.
The responsibility was of the government and not any TV channel.
Don't forget even Israel had many a times released terrorists in return for hostages,'' he said.
Elaborating on his party's repeated demand for the repeal of POTA, Mr Jaitley explained it was not just the question of reviving the anti-terror law. ''The real issue is the attitude of the Government. The NDA did have a policy to tackle terrorism ...Zero tolerance, giving the security and intelligence free hand were some of them.'' ''Take for instance Akshardham incident. In the last five years where does terrorism stand in Gujarat? The intelligence system there is now in tune. It is the BJP's government there. We gave a free hand to the intelligence and security agencies,'' he said.
Mr Jaitley rejected the charge that a particular community was targeted under POTA. ''Such a charge was never made when we speak of ULFA or Naxals,'' he said.
To a specific question that the maximum number of cases under POTA were registered against Muslims, he said during the Punjab unrest the maximum number of TADA cases were registered against Sikhs.
The BJP leader also defended the party's opposition to 123 Agreement, saying their concern was releated to nuclear supplies and testing facilities. ''It does not mean that the BJP is against the US and against strategic ties,'' he clarified.
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