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The Opposition sought the intervention of Rajya Sabha Chairman Krishan Kant to waive the mandatory 24 hours notice clause for moving the statutory resolution, which entails voting.
Moving the resolution, Congress politician Kapil Sibal said the government had rejected outright an Opposition plea on Wednesday night to refer the bill to a select committee to evolve a consensus on certain contentious provisions.
"We wanted to give an escape route to the government, but there was no move by the Treasury benches to even meet us halfway," Sibal said, adding that the Opposition was left with no option but to move a statutory resolution opposing the bill.
He said the showdown in the House, where the ruling National Democratic Alliance is in a minority, would be a defining moment in history where political parties would have to take a "definitive" stand and make a choice.
He said the government by bringing the bill was aiming to divide the polity and bring in the "politics of hatred".
"You are seeking to sacrifice civil liberties," Sibal said, "combat terrorism through a law that will perpetuate terrorism. You want to unlearn from history, we want to learn from history."
Sibal said the ground realities of the past six months, since the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance was promulgated, had shown that its enforcement, whether in Jammu & Kashmir or Gujarat, had led to numerous violations of human rights.
Citing the recent riots in Gujarat, he accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state of having been "very selective" in using POTO to deal with law-breakers.
The state machinery was protecting people who had collaborated and indulged in violence, he said.
Sibal read out some fiery speeches made in 1989 by Lal Kishenchand Advani, George Fernandes, Yashwant Sinha, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ram Naik and others while opposing the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and described POTO as "worse than the Rowlatt Act and a blot on the fair name of democracy".
He said that while the BJP-led government was quick to ban the Students' Islamic Movement of India with an eye on the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, it had failed to include the Maoist Communist Centre, People's War Group, and National Socialist Council of Nagalim, Isak-Muivah faction. "It shows their state of mind," he said. "It shows their style of governance. They are trying to play politics."
PTI
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