Book of Integration Council New - Ministry of Home Affairs

apart from these meetings, I think it may be a good idea to get leaders of different
political parties sit together, away from the media glare, away from taking postures and
concentrating on what is good for the nation, because there are things that are be
agreed by various parties at various points of time. I remember when I came to the
parliament, the first time in 1991, there was a bill on population. That was Shri
Narsimha Rao’s Government and Shri Fotedar had presented and introduced a bill in
the Rajya Sabha about the population. Since 1991, that bill is pending in the Rajya
Sabha. Due to various political compulsions, nobody is able to get it through despite
the fact that over the last 15-20 years, different parties have come to power at the
Centre. How’s that when we are in the opposition, we say one thing and when we are in
the ruling party or in the Government, we do not follow it. Therefore, there has to
be a system whereby some issues, may be only a few, may be 2, 3, 4, may not be
directly related to the terrorism, may not be directly related to communalism but
some where there should be a meeting ground formed amongst all major political
parties in the country. And if I am not wrong I was told something about the election of
pope. I am told when election of the pope is carried out, all the cardinals who are the
voters, they are put inside a room or in a house which is locked from outside. They
are not allowed to come out untill the white smoke has come out through the
chimney indicating that a unanimous election or selection has been done. Nobody
comes out and says what I said in the meeting and there is supposed to be a common
unified decision of all the people. If you could do some such things sir, I think your
country will be able to resolve at least some of the common points and not keep on
bickering in public because ultimately we are trying to get to the voter about what
we think. Somehow, at least for major issues a common ground can be found at
least among most of the parties.
Again coming on to today’s agenda, I do not wish to say or repeat what
many people have said but I would like to convey a little concern which I also
had when I got this Agenda. First there was nothing about terrorism in the agenda
then some people suggested and it was included. Why it is so that we hesitate
to call that terrorism is bad. Why do we fall into the trap of semantics by calling
it extremism. If it is done unknowingly it is all right, but, if it is done knowingly,
there is serious problem that is wrong. Entire country says that terrorism is bad
and you should not want to hide in the semantics of terrorism, extremism or
something like that. So this type of message that you give to the people also
conveys that we, whether in Government or otherwise, are not serious about these
issues. So now I come on to another aspect about terrorism which I would like to
convey here as to how we can find a some common meeting ground. Today
POTA has become a dirty word. There may have been wrong things which may have
been done, while applying POTA, but after this recent events of terrorism, even people
in the Government have started saying that they need a stronger law. The stronger law if
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