The Communist Party of India, Marxist, on Tuesday expressed serious reservations about the 'certificate' given to the Prevention of Terrorism Act by newly appointed National Human Rights Commission Chairman Adarsh Sein Anand.

Somnath Chatterjee, the party's leader in Parliament, said, "If, as he has claimed, there were inbuilt safeguards in the legislation, then why has Mr Vaiko [of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu] or, for that matter, a former minister [Raghuraj Pratap Singh] in the erstwhile BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, been held under POTA?"

Chatterjee said he does not hold a brief for these politicians, "but we have been warning the government that this legislation had the portents of being misused against political rivals".

He urged the NHRC chairman to exercise restraint and "decide as and when matters come before him, and not give hasty observations".

Anand, a former chief justice of India, had made his statement on Monday, soon after taking up his new post. "Any law can be misused," he had said. "What we have to see is whether there is an in-built mechanism to safeguard the act from being misused. It [POTA] has."

Reacting to the reference to the Ayodhya dispute in the President's address to Parliament, and the government's plea to the Supreme Court to expedite the case, Chatterjee said, "The government's actions are not supporting the pronouncements made by the President."

He said a "very calculated" attempt had been made by the government in connivance with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to disturb the status quo at the disputed site just before the state assembly elections "as they have no other issue but the communal plank".

Recalling how the issue was raked up last March, he remarked, "Suddenly a shankaracharya came to Delhi and a flurry of activity took place. Again this year they have gone to the court. What is the reason that prompted the government to rush to the court?"

Chatterjee said the Supreme Court had made it amply clear in its 1994 order that the status quo must be maintained on the entire acquired land in Ayodhya till final adjudication of the dispute. Justice (retired) J S Verma, who had been on the bench that had given the 1994 direction, had made the same point, he noted.

Chatterjee also criticized the government for not taking a firm stand on the Iraq controversy. "Open threats are being given to Iraq by the biggest imperialist force," he said. "And the type of global protests that are coming up, we must salute those people who have stood up against these threats of war on Iraq." But the government's stand, he quipped, was "totally ambivalent, like some of the NDA allies sitting by its side".