By IANS,
Chandigarh : Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Sunday said the existing anti-terror laws needed to be fine tuned to stamp out the scourge.
“While extraordinary laws are sometimes required to deal with extraordinary situations arising out of terrorist violence, the irony is that such laws are prone to abuse, leading to the undermining of the rule of law,” Chatterjee said.
He was addressing presiding officers and secretaries of state legislatures and parliament after inaugurating the 73rd conference of Presiding officers of Legislative Bodies in India here.
He said no civilised society could tolerate terrorism.
“I believe we need to adopt a multi-dimensional approach to address the menace of terrorism. There is a feeling that we need to strengthen our laws. However, laws and institutional apparatuses lose their potency in the sea of political ambivalence and divisiveness.
“As presiding officers, we cannot but regret the state of affairs, particularly in our legislatures, which we preside over, and the manner of functioning of our democratic institutions in general,” the Lok Sabha speaker said.
“We, as a nation and a democratic polity, are committed to taking all democratic and lawful steps to counter the evil of terrorism, including the enactment of effective laws and amending existing laws to fine-tune them to the requirements of the situation and seeking the cooperation of other countries in combating the scourge of terrorism,” Chatterjee added.