We Love Modi

NEW DELHI: Having set a new benchmark in terror investigations by cracking the Ahmedabad blasts case in three weeks, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Friday made a fresh appeal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately clear the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill and help the state acquire more teeth to combat terror.

Stressing on the need for political will to give more legal powers and resources to the police, Mr Modi in his meeting with the prime minister sought prompt central clearance for the GCOCA, pending with the MHA for nearly four years. With MCOCA already in place in Maharashtra, Mr Modi was categorical that Gujarat, which lost 56 people in the July 26 serial blasts, must be allowed its own anti-terror law.

“It is important to understand that this law exists in Maharashtra and if a bomb blast takes place they can use it, but if it happens in Gujarat just 50 km away, I don’t have the law,” he said.

Ironically, Union home minister Shivraj Patil has already ruled out clearance to the proposed anti-terror legislations of half-a-dozen states pending with his ministry. During a recent interaction between the prime minister and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani attended by him, Mr Patil had communicated the government’s opposition to the states’ move to enact a law having provisions similar to the repealed Pota.

Rejecting the UPA government’s argument that there was no need for a Pota-type law as there were terror attacks even when Pota was in effect, Mr Modi said: “I want to tell those politicians who have their minds filled with vote bank politics that....despite having Section 302 (of IPC which gives death penalty for murder), murders do take place. Does this mean we remove this clause?” Mr Modi insisted that strong laws were needed to deter the youth from being lured by terrorists for joining in their anti-national activities.

In a meeting that saw a free and frank exchange on security issues between the prime minister, assisted by NSA M K Narayanan, and Mr Modi, the latter shared “specific” leads on terror threats that have emerged from the interrogation of Simi leaders arrested by Gujarat police for the Ahmedabad blasts as well as for planting bombs in Surat. The leads possibly relate to future targets being eyed by the terror outfits.

Sharing the assessment that centres of economic activity are the favoured target of jehadi terror, Mr Modi sought the establishment of special cell comprising intelligence officials of the Centre and economically-progressive states to facilitate constant exchange of information and threat perception among them. “There is a need for co-ordination between the Centre and states and also among the states to combat terror,” he said.

Mr Modi was particularly concerned over terror funding and advanced communication systems being used by the terror outfits. He called for a more pro-active approach by the Central agencies to tap these funding and communication channels, something that Mr Singh and Mr Narayanan readily agreed to.

Also, with Gujarat being a coastal state and intelligence inputs pointing to jehadis’ plans to infiltrate men and ammunition through the sea route, Mr Modi sought further tightening of coastal security.

For once, the discussions between Mr Modi and the prime ministerial establishment rose above party politics and focused on a joint approach to uproot terror. After the meeting, Mr Modi insisted that he had not come to the PMO “as a BJP leader but as a voice of the Gujarat assembly which represents 5.5 crore people.” “We should fight terrorism as a united force,” he underlined.