According to highly placed sources one of the bills is related to setting up of the federal investigating agency to specifically deal with terror related crimes, and the other is a Constitution amendment, which if passed would give sweeping rights to the investigating agencies to probe terror strikes in various parts of the country.
The decision to introduce and get the bills passed was taken after an all-party meeting that held at the office of the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The meeting was presided over by the Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The leaders of the four Left parties were also present in the meeting who opposed the government's move arguing that the law and order is a state subject and formation of a federal investigating agency would amount to interference in the 'sovereign' domain of the states.
The attempts of the government to prevail upon the Left proved futile as the Left parties insisted on opposing any such move in the parliament.
However, other parties including the BJP and other constituents of the opposition National Democratic Alliance extended their full support to the government saying they were with the government at a time when a war had been waged against the country.
The previous NDA government had mooted the idea of a federal agency during its regime, not once but many times, at the meetings of the Director General of police and the chief ministers, but failed to evolve a consensus as the Congress and the Left parties had opposed the move tooth and nail describing the initiative as an attempt to undermine the rights of the state governments.
Interestingly, the same Congress is moving the same idea. Earlier, the ruling party had planned to set up federal investigating agency through a government notification, as a consensus was not in the sight. However, it has changed the plan following support from the BJP and NDA. With the support of the NDA the government would easily get the Constitution amendment bill passed in both the Houses of Parliament that requires a two third majority.#
India: Legislative bills
India to enact new laws to curb terror
The proposed "Federal Agency" likely to get majority support
Kushal Jeena - 11-12-2008 09:34 GMT-0000
New Delhi: Notwithstanding the opposition from the Left parties the UPA government is contemplating to bring two bills in the current session of parliament to curb growing menace of terrorism.