‘Terrorism will be tackled by iron hands and not velvet gloves’

Our Corporate Bureau

New Delhi, Dec 6: India can no longer remain a soft state targeted by terrorism and cannot become helpless for want of consensus. This was stated by Union minister for law, justice and company affairs Arun Jaitley at an interactive session ‘India’s security: The legal challenge’ of the 74th annual session of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Mr Jaitley said even if political consensus eludes the government on Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTO), the government will not retract. It is imperative to give a chilling message to all terrorist groups that their acts will not be tolerated any more,” said he added.

The minister said, “Political consensus is a wonderful phrase, but consensus gets sacrificed when politics overtakes it. In this context, we have to decide as to what type of country we want - whether a soft pathetic state or a country which knows how to address day-to-day constant assaults.”

Mr Jaitley said there is a direct co-relation between security and an unstinted economic activity. Already Rs 45,000 crore have been spent on anti-insurgency operations, excluding that of the army, and in rehabilitating affected people, he said,adding more than 61,000 civilians and 9,000 security personnel have lost their lives fighting terrorists. This is a phenomenal loss compared to about 5,000 lives lost in all the four wars we have fought till now.

“It is shocking to note that 48,000 kg of RDX has already been seized, enough to probably blast each inch of our soil. This magnitude of terrorism cannot be tackled by velvet gloves, but by iron hands,” Mr Jaitley added.