Gandhi Govt adopts new detention law

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 9

Gandhi Govt adopts new detention law

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi Indian Opposition leaders said yesterday that they would fight against hew powers of arrest arid detention given to the Government of the Prime Minister (Mrs Indira Gandhi). A national security ordinance issued by President Sanjiva Reddy on Monday gave the national Government in New Delhi and 22 state governments a right to detain a person for up to 12 months without trial..

The Opposition leaders said the ordinance was similar to. emergency measures introduced, during Mrs Gandhi’s 1975-77 Government when thousands of political opponents were detained. Subramaniam Swamy, gen-

eral secretary of the Opposition Janata Party which defeated Mrs Gandhi in 1977 and . ruled, until last year, saidrhis party would launch a country-wide . agitation against the ordinance.

An official statement on the ordinance said it was necessary because communal disharmony, caste conflicts, social .tensions, and extremist activities were prevailing in the country. “Interested parties” were trying to encourage agitation and secessionist movements, the statement said. The ordinance would enable the authorities to deal “effectively and sternly with . . . anti-national and anti-social elements” who

pose a grave challenge to the lawful authority and sometimes even hold the society to ransom." The term ransom was earlier used by Mrs Gandhi to refer to events in the north-eastern state of Assam

where a one-year-old agitation against illegal immigrants and a blockade of Assamese oil supplies to the rest of the country have cost India hundreds of millions of dollars. • '

Nearly 190 people died in the agitation which is led by students, who are at present holding tough negotiations with the Government. More than 170 people also died last month in communal violence in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

In Nagaland State, bordering Assam, four people were .killed on Monday when extremists seeking independence from India clashed with security forces, the police said. The authorities will notify detainees the reason for their arrest within a maximum of 10 days.

Detainees will be able to challenge the ordinance in court on the ground that it violates their fundamental rights, and three-member advisory boards chaired by High Court judges will reI view detention cases.