Lok Sabha passes bill to designate individuals as terrorists amid Congress walkout

During a debate in the Lok Sabha to amend the UAPA act, Shah said the provision to designate a person suspected to have terror links as terrorist is necessary to root out terror and keep the enforcement agencies a step ahead of terrorists.

The Lok Sabha Wednesday passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019, amid a walkout by Congress MPs, who sought the bill be sent to a Parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny. The Bill, tabled by Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday, seeks to introduce a provision in the anti-terror act to designate individuals suspected to have terror links, instead of just organisations, as terrorists.

During a debate in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah said the amendments were necessary to root out terror and keep the law enforcement agencies a step ahead of terrorists. Citing examples from other countries, Shah said, “UN has a procedure for it, US has it, Pakistan has it, China has it, Israel has it, European Union has it, everyone has done it.” Follow Parliament LIVE updates

Hitting out at the Congress for opposing the amendment, Shah said if the UPA was correct in amending anti-terror laws in their tenure, then so was the NDA. The Home Minister was referring to the POTA act that was repealed by the UPA government in 2004.

Shah had last week said in Parliament that the UPA government had repealed POTA for “vote bank politics”, and had the Act not been repealed 26/11 would probably not have happened.

The Congress had earlier criticised the UAPA (Amendment) Bill, 2019, saying the legislation was being made more draconian by allowing individuals to be declared as terrorists rather than just organisations. The provision was also opposed by YSRCP and DMK.

“I want to ask on what basis is this being done? How many lone-wolf attacks have happened in India? Which terror attack did not have an organisation behind it? This is going to be misused majorly… Please don’t make India a police state,” Congress leader Manish Tewari had said.

The UAPA Amendment Bill, 2019, amends the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Under the Act, an investigating officer is required to obtain the prior approval of the director-general of police (DGP) to seize properties that may be connected with terrorism.

The Bill adds that if the investigation is conducted by an officer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the approval of the director-general of NIA would be required for seizure of such property. The bill additionally empowers the officers of the NIA, of the rank of inspector or above, to investigate cases.

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