Secular TADA

Is the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) anti-Muslim? If you believe the propoganda in certain quarters you would think that this unfortunate though necessary measure was put on the statue book only to detain and harass the members of the minority community. The socalled secularists and human rights busybodies compounded the mischief further by endorsing this communal line. That the campaign against TADA originated in the minority Press and found its echo in the community's places of worship has however failed to detract from the 'secular' character of TADA. The fact that the maximum number of TADA detenus were in Gujarat and not in Kashmir or Maharashtra should be enough to convince anyone that the preventive detention law is not community-specific. Contrary to the popular belief that most of those detained under the act are Muslims, a survey has revealed that non-Muslims far out number Muslims detained under the preventive law. It may be that in Bombay, which naturally attracts far more than media attention than Gujarat or even Kashmir, a large number of TADA detenus are Miuslims. But that was to be expected given their involvement in the serial Bombay bomb blasts conspiracy. But to conclude from the figure of detenus in Bombay that TADA is meant only for Muslims will be totally wrong. Indeed it would detract from the otherwise strong case that can be reasonably made against the draconian measure.