New Delhi, December 18
The Opposition today took a dig at the government for bringing in a tougher law to deal with terror after “95 per cent of its tenure” was over and said the ruling UPA was forced to do a rethink on its position due to the “10 evil men” who attacked Mumbai.

“Unfortunately for 95 per cent of its tenure, the government was unwilling (to bring a tough law). It spent 95 per cent of its tenure explaining as to why a strong terror law was not required,” Arun Jaitley (BJP) said initiating the debate after home minister P Chidambaram introduced in the Rajya Sabha the bills for setting up a National Investigation Agency and amending the law to deal with terrorism effectively.

Criticising the government for being “soft” on terror, he said, “The 10 evil men who entered Mumbai have shaken all fundamentals on which a strong anti-terror law was opposed”.

The BJP member supported the bills saying that the opposition was backing them due to “national necessity” but rued that the government was “apologetic” on bringing them.

“For 4 years and 7 months you made the country vulnerable and have brought it (the bill) now,” Jaitley said.

The BJP MP supported the setting up of the National Investigation Agency but said the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2008 needed more teeth.

Jaitley wanted confessions under police custody being made admissible under the new law, as was the case in TADA. He said that no convictions would have been possible in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and the Parliament attack case had confessions in police custody not been made admissible evidence under TADA. — PTI