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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
The West Bengal government will not rush through the Prevention of Organised Crime Bill, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said on Saturday.
Addressing mediapersons, Bhattacharya said, "I have to wait. I must not rush POCA when minorities have apprehensions and when Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance has created so much problems and controversy."
He also made it clear his government would not implement the POT Bill even if enacted.
"In West Bengal, we will not implement it. We don't need it. It is dangerous. I am totally opposed to it. We have defeated POT Bill in the Rajya Sabha and we are going to fight it in the joint session of parliament as well," he said.
Asked about POCA, contemplated by his government, Bhattacharya said, "We drafted this law (POCA), long before POTO came. POCA was contemplated to deal with hijacking, kidnappings for ransom and armed insurgency. When I was about to move it in the assembly, suddenly POTO came and generated a serious controversy. We need a state-specific act but we cannot follow POTO."
Bhattacharya also criticised the Gujarat government for the recent violence in the state.
"We cannot imagine what happened in Gujarat. What was the government doing there? How could it allow all those things to happen? But, I am the last person to give any advice to Gujarat government (on how to deal with the situation) since it is a party to the communal riots and carnage there," he said.
Referring to the controversy over madrassas (Muslim religious schools), he said that his appeal to the 'right-thinking people in Muslim community' was to ensure that the madrassas do not confine themselves to teaching Arabic language and theology, but also teach English, sciences and mathematics.
"Without modern education, Muslims cannot compete with others and a vast majority of Muslims share my views, "he added.
After meeting the mediapersons, Bhattacharya met his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, N Chandrababu Naidu.
Emerging from the 30-minute meeting, Bhattacharya was quite reluctant to divulge the details of his talks with Naidu.
"I personally came to thank Naidu for the hospitality extended. It is a courtesy call. We discussed mutual problems of our two states, particularly in the finance and agriculture sectors. Our financial problems are similar," he said.
Asked whether he discussed the national political developments in the wake of Gujarat and Ayodhya episodes, he said, "When two politicians meet, they do discuss politics. Yes. We discussed politics. I cannot say more."
Chandrababu Naidu, too, was not forthcoming on his talks with Bhattacharya.
"We discussed the problems facing our states. We have lot of things in common between West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh," he said.
Asked whether he discussed the developments in the NDA, Naidu said, "It is not the time to talk such things."
To a question, he said, "My stand on Ayodhya is very clear. We stand by secularism. We are committed to NDA agenda."
The West Bengal chief minister was in Hyderabad to attend the 17th Congress of his party, the Communist Party of India--Marxist.
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