The Congress today said there was no contradiction between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's suggestion for tougher anti-terror laws and Union Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi's remark that existing laws are sufficient to tackle the problem. Asked whether the statements by the two leaders ran counter to each other, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said "there is no contradiction and they are only parts of various suggestions like the creation of a federal agency, stringent terror law, amendments in existing laws, recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Commission and strengthening security and intelligence agencies."
Tewari told reporters that there was a need of not only a stronger law on terror but also strong measures to curb the menace. "You need not only a stronger law but also measures to curb terror. Five or six countries like US, Britain and France have strengthened their laws on terror post 9/11," he said.
To a question on the commitment of the government to fight terror when some of its allies like the Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lok Janshakti Party's Ram Vilas Paswan and Rashtriya Janata Dal's Lalu Prasad Yadav have supported lifting the ban on SIMI, Tewari said when the government moved the court to impose a fresh ban on the terror outfit, none of the allies opposed it.
"The intention of the government has to be seen from its actions," the spokesman said. Tewari parried questions on fixing the responsibility for the Delhi blasts on Home Minister Shivraj Patil. "Making it an individual centric issue is probably doing injustice to the battle against terror. You are missing the trees for the woods," he added.
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