NEW DELHI: Supporting death penalty for terrorists, former CBI Director Joginder Singh has accused Yakub Memon, hanged for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, and his supporters of misusing India's liberal laws and called for an overhaul of anti-terror legislations.
In an article in RSS organ "Organizer", the former CBI Director hit out at rights activists opposing death sentence to Memon, saying they did so for the sake of publicity.
He also made a strong case for change in anti-terror laws saying India was unable to fight extremists because the then Government in 2004 had repealed anti-terror laws in the name of vote bank politics.
"India has failed to tackle terrorism for the simple reason that all terrorism laws were repealed by the then Government in 2004, for appeasement, vote bank politics... There is no effective law to deal with the terrorism in our country... It is rather overdue to change the policies, laws and approach, which has failed to deliver.
Yakub Memon case shows, how the terrorists use every opportunity, to misuse the liberal laws of India. Despite being slated to be hanged on July 30, he filed a case in the Supreme Court and to delay, sent a mercy petition to the President, which had been rejected," Singh said.
Coming down heavily on "the open and tacit supporters" of Memon, Singh urged the Government "not to bother about such people" saying, "Most Indians, irrespective of religion, will support the Government if it can convey it means business."
Singh also launched a scathing attack on activists arguing against death penalty for terrorists saying, "There are more unpaid advisers and so-called rights activists, than the problem, the country has faced.
Instead of ensuring good governance, such people are finding fault with everything. Since they can't criticise the judiciary, they egg the criminals to go on approaching apex curt again and again to delay the cases. Obviously, it is for the purpose of getting publicity in the media."
The former chief of RPF, Joginder Singh quoted former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who had on July 15, 1985 in a speech to the American Bar Association called for "starving the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity and asking the media to agree among themselves to a voluntary code of conduct... under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists' morale or their cause..."