The Rajya Sabha on Friday passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment (UAPA) Bill days after several heated debates between the government and opposition parties over the controversial legislation.
Out of the total members who voted, 147 MPs were in favour of passing the new changes to the anti-terror bill while 42 voted against it.
The Upper House rejected a proposal moved by the opposition parties to send the bill to a select committee of Parliament for further scrutiny.
The anti-terror bill, which empowers the government to designate individuals as terrorists, was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by Minister of State (MoS) Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy.
Earlier on July 24, the Lok Sabha had passed the controversial bill after the acrimonious debate with the opposition parties.
Earlier in Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah responded to concerns Opposition had raised with regards to the bill. Shah said that the sole purpose of the UAPA Bill is to fight terror and it has no other ulterior motive.
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“This (UAPA) Act is to fight terror and has no other purpose,” he said. The home minister also said that it is important to identify terrorists individually and not just terror organisations.
Amit Shah said, “When we were in opposition, we supported previous UAPA amendments, be it in 2004,’08 or ’13 as we believe all should support tough measures against terror. We also believe that terror has no religion, it is against humanity, not against a particular govt or individual.”
.@AmitShah: When we were in opposition, we supported previous #UAPA amendments, be it in 2004,’08 or ’13 as we believe all should support tough measures against terror. We also believe that terror has no religion, it is against humanity,not against a particular Govt or individual pic.twitter.com/qoUlP4OxKR
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) August 2, 2019
On the other hand, Congress leader P Chidambaram said, “If you see reasons for the amendment, it says ‘to empower NIA’. In passing you say ’empowers Centre to add or remove an individual’s name as a terrorist’, this mischief is why we’re opposing this amendment, we aren’t opposing Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.”
.@PChidambaram_IN #RS: If you see reasons for amendment, it says ‘to empower NIA’.In passing you say ’empowers Centre to add or remove an individual’s name as a terrorist’, this mischief is why we’re opposing this amendment, we aren’t opposing Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act pic.twitter.com/0jPTiPoGKw
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) August 2, 2019
Soon after the bill was introduced in the Upper House, several Congress and DMK leaders staged a walkout after the Chair rejected their plea to further discuss the bill on Friday.
While discussing the bill, Congress leader Kapil Sibal had also argued that the bill does not define a terrorist as mentioned in the bill. He said that the definition is not clear in the House.