ISA IS NOT THE SOLUTION

People who spread unfounded rumours to cause panic and incite sentiments to provoke disturbances must be dealt with sternly.

But resorting to the use of the ISA to combat this nefarious activity is not the proper course of action.

We have specific laws for various offences and these people should be charged under the appropriate law.  The ISA must not be viewed as the be-all and and-all kind of solution to overcome our problems.

Those who have been tracked down, as claimed by the authorities, should be identified and charged in a court of law and duly convicted.  The law must take its course and the guilty must be punished.

Rumours are in vogue because information is not easily accessible to the public; and secondly because there is an absence of any swift response to counter baseless rumours whenever they are in circulation.  The authorities should track down a rumour as soon as it surfaces and come out with a clarification to demolish it.

When this is effectively undertaken, rumours will not gain currency among the gullible.

P.  Ramakrishnan
President
11 August 1998