“Manmohan Singh’s bonafides in the war against terror are suspect,” senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said.

“It is ironical that after being in the prime ministerial office for four years Singh has finally woken up to the harsh and cruel reality that prevention and investigation of terrorism in India is on the verge of collapse,” Jaitley said.  He said that the repeal of POTA, not giving assent to similar anti-terror laws in BJP-ruled states, non-execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and “helping the accused being prosecuted under POTA for burning Sabarmati Express” raise a legitimate question whether a federal agency under Singh can really be trusted. Jaitely asked, “does the Prime Minister’s track record inspire confidence that he will implement his proposal for a federal agency against terror?”

He also sought to know whether Singh would have the political courage to strengthen the content of India’s anti-terrorist laws to make them more “terrorist-unfriendly”.

Claiming that the Prime Minister and Congress had been opposing strong anti-terror law, he sought to know whether the federal agency would be helpless in investigating terrorist crimes if confessions of terrorists are inadmissible evidence and an easy bail is available to terrorists under normal law.