TCN News
National President of Welfare Party of India, Dr SQR Ilyas strongly objected to the recently passed NIA Amendment Bill and UAPA Amendment Bill in both the houses of the parliament.
Criticising the Amendments in the NIA Bill he said, in the party’s press release that it is an encroachment upon the rights of a State by the Central government to conduct investigation, thereby going against the notion of federalism.
According to the press release the party president says the recent amendment in the bill expands the ambit of the list of offences ranging from human trafficking, counterfeit currency, cyber terrorism and other crimes which are under the state list of law and order. He pointed out that, not every offence is a threat to the national security.
He also said that the Amendment bill puts section 66F of the Information technology Act into the schedule listing offences, while India does not have Data protection Act and hence it can be grossly misused.
And the Amendment to schedule 4 of the UAPA will allow NIA to designate an individual suspected to having terror links as a terrorist, undoing the earlier definition where organisations were designated as terror organisation and further empowering NIA to approve seizure/attachments of property and travel ban on the suspect.
The previous terror laws were repealed because of rampant misuse and now in the name of fighting terror, the citizen’s right to question, dissent in a democratic country could be put on stake.
The press release also stated that these amendments in the terror laws can be used against Muslims, Dalits, human rights activists and as political vendetta against opponents.
Dr. SQR Ilyas demanded that all the draconian laws should be repealed and innocent citizens lingering in jails under such should be released immediately and given compensation.
He appealed to the nation to stand firm and demand the government to withdraw the amendments as they pose a threat to civil liberties, weaken the faith in law and can be misused by an authoritarian government, thereby killing democracy.