NIA amendment bill: Muslim League stance under fire
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New Delhi: The stance taken by Indian Union Muslim League MP's in the Lok Sabha, on the NIA amendment bill giving new powers to the investigating agency, has come under fire.
The bill moved by home minister Amit Shah was put to vote on Wednesday and passed with 278 votes in favour and six against. Although there was a heated argument earlier between AIMIM member Asaduddeen Owaisi and minister Amit Shah in the course of the discussion, the bill had a predictably smooth passage in Lok Sabha.
When the Congress supported the bill, the six who opposed it included three from CPM, including the sole CPM MP from Kerala AM Arif. AIMIM's MPs Asaduddeen Owaisi, Imtiyaz Jaleel, CPM member from Tamil Nadu PR Natarajan, CPI's K Subbarayan and National conference's Hasnain Masoodi were the others who voted against.
It was interesting that K Muraleedharan, Congress MP from Kerala left the house in disagreement with his party's decision to support the bill. At the same time, PK Kunhalikutty, ET Mohammed Basheer and Navas Kani from Muslim League just abstained from voting. The League had virulently opposed the provisions of the bill, but when it came to voting the party seemed to be at a loss.
In fact, the voting came by surprise. When Owaisi unexpectedly demanded voting, it left the Congress and allies in disarray without any co-ordination on the floor. Congress' parliamentary party leader Adheer Ranjan Chowdhury had taken the line that the message to be given was that the party was with the government in preventing terrorism.
However, not everybody in the Congress was sharing that view, as made clear by Muraleedharan. As for the League, although it spoke vociferously against its provisions, when it came to voting, it neither voted against it, nor quit the session. In effect, there was no recorded protest from ML.
It turned out to be another instance of the League not taking a clear stance on an issue with ramifications for the community it represented in the house – which were raised by the League members themselves.
Several opposition parties had also highlighted that giving wider powers to NIA in the name of preventing terrorism within the country and abroad, would be abused against minorities. When Owaisi demanded voting, the government supported that proposal.
The intention of Amit Shah was that the people could know where the parties stood on preventing terrorism. It is at the same time when there are allegations that NIA targets minority communities and frame fake cases against them to put them in detention for years on end, that Modi government has come up with the new amendments.
NIA, which will be armed with new powers to probe into terrorist acts committed abroad against India, will also be authorised to investigate cases involving human trafficking and cyber terrorism.