'Approve Gujarat's anti-terror legislation'

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani yesterday condemned the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and demanded that President Pratibha Patil give her assent to Gujarat's long-pending anti-terror law.

"I would demand the president's assent to the state laws of Gujarat and Rajasthan akin to the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act [MCOCA] pending with the [central] government. The Gujarat law has been pending for the last four years," Advani told reporters here.

"I cannot draw any conclusions. The law has been pending for many years and to approve it should be our immediate response," said Advani, who represents the Gandhiagar constituency, which includes parts of Ahmedabad. "The anti-terror legal framework of the government has been weakened after the repealing of the Pota (Prevention of Terrorism Act). The alacrity with which the government should have responded to the anti-terror elements has not been there," said the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi expressed "deep shock" over the blasts that rocked Ahmedabad. She condemned the killing of innocent civilians and termed the blasts an "act of desperation with a view to disturb the peace and harmony in the country".