POTA has changed Vaiko: Karat

Madurai, Apr 15 (UNI) Can POTA, the now repealed anti-terror statute, affect the cognitive powers and thought process of a detenu? Marxist leader Prakash Karat believes it does. He cites as example firebrand orator and MDMK General Secretary Vaiko, who after a 19-month-long detention under the law, deserted the DMK-led DPA and aligned with the very same people who put him in captivity.

Addressing a poll meeting here last night, Mr Karat recalled his warning to Mr Vaiko when the MDMK voted in Parliament in favour of POTA. 'Then, I had warned him that he himself would be in trouble since Jayalalithaa was in power in Tamil Nadu,' Mr Karat said.

The prediction had not only come true, but exposed the danger of POTA affecting the 'thinking' of a detenu, he said and asked how else could Vaiko's new-found alliance be explained. 'Indeed POTA has made him a changed man. That is POTA', he asserted.

'Just a month before the MDMK deserted the DMK-led DPA, Vaiko met me in New Delhi but I will not disclose what transpired between us.' On the CPI(M)'s opposition to preventive detention, he said the party, since Independence, had consistently fought against black laws in any form like MISA or TADA. The very first case in the Supreme Court challenging preventive detention was filed by legendary Marxist leader A K Gopalan, he pointed out.

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