Dear Goanet The two bills introduced recently in Parliament will, when they become law, give the Government additional powers to probe terrorism and prosecute suspects. The question for citizens from minority communities, however, is not so much the robustness of the laws as the earnestness of the authorities to employ them non-exclusively. For, it is not that there were no laws in force when Sikhs, Muslims, and, more recently, Christians were the targets of organized terrorism, but that there was a lack of zeal on the part of police and government to apply them. As a result, they were beaten, raped and burnt alive – sometimes by the police and prominent leaders - in an orgy of terror that ended only when the energy of the attackers was spent.
What hope then do we, of the minorities, have that the imminent laws will be used in our defence? Our founding fathers too made laws and wrote the constitution. We believed in them and felt secure. No longer. Events in Delhi in 1984, Mumbai in ’92-93, Gujarat in 2002 and Malegaon , Orissa and Karnataka this year make us wonder what the future has in store for us. Expats, like me, who nurture the dream of returning to our motherland, have to think again. We are faced with the irony that we are more protected and wanted in strange lands than in our own. Yours truly David Albuquerque ________________________________ Stay connected to the people that matter most with a smarter inbox. Take a look. Stay connected to the people that matter most with a smarter inbox. Take a look http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/smarterinbox