NEW DELHI, Mar 2: BJP, which has been opposing NCTC, today accused the Congress-led UPA Government of failing to provide leadership in fighting terror and asked it to bring in a strong anti-terror law if it was serious on the issue.
“The Congress-led UPA is not providing the leadership to fight terrorism. We cannot win over the fight against terror under UPA,” BJP President Rajnath Singh said in his inaugural address at the National Council meet, where he condoled the loss of lives in the recent bomb blasts in Hyderabad.
Claiming that the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre was against the country’s federal structure, he said BJP was not against any laws to shore up internal security but will not accept anything that “poses a question mark on the nation’s federal structure”.
“If the government brings a law to fight terror, BJP will support it,” he said.
“If the government is so serious on the issue of terrorism that it wants to make an anti-terrorism institution like NCTC at central level then why it is not keen on enacting an anti-terrorism law at the Centre,” the BJP chief questioned.
He said the one-sided effort which the UPA government made for friendship despite not getting expected help from Pakistan projected the image of India as a ‘soft State’.
“As long as the government does not take a tough stand against terrorism, the terrorists with their emboldened spirit would keep targeting cities, trains, buses and other important institutions,” Singh said.
The BJP also hit out at Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his ‘Hindu terror’ remarks, saying they were made under a ‘pre-planned conspiracy’.
“The remarks were made not by mistake but under a well-planned conspiracy,” Singh said and accused the Congress of indulging in vote bank politics for the last over six decades.
Shinde had later expressed regret over his remarks linking BJP and RSS to terrorism, which he had made during an AICC meet in Jaipur in January, after strong objections from these organisations.
The opposition party also hit out at the ruling dispensation over corruption in the wake of the VVIP helicopter scam and price rise.
The opposition party also charged the government with failing on the diplomatic front while dealing with neighbouring countries.
He said India needs to maintain good relations with neighbouring Pakistan but this has to be mutual.
“Pakistan is waging a multi-dimensional war with India through training to terrorists, supply of weapons, smuggling of drugs, fake currencies and communal propaganda on internet which may be called hybrid war,” he said, adding that “the government does not possess the will power to fight it.”
Lamenting the lack of an “aggressive policy” against terrorism, Singh cited the example of US President Barack Obama “who had said ‘we will search you and finish you’ to Osama bin Laden after the World Trade Centre attack” and Israeli Prime Minister who had declared “‘we will hunt you down, we will annihilate you’ and responds aggressively against terrorist hideouts”.
With Pakistan continuously waging a war against India by sponsoring terrorism from across the border, Singh said India has not been talking tough and has instead taken a stand that “we will not play cricket” whenever a terror attack sponsored by Pakistan has taken place.
“The UPA government dealt a severe blow to India’s fight against terrorism when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave up his own policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism in the wake of Mumbai attack in 2008 in the city of Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt.
“UPA government bent its knees before Pakistan in Sharm-el-Sheikh and accepted that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism like India,” Singh claimed.
While expressing concern over the growing “all weather friendship” between Pakistan and China, he also raised the issue of construction of a dam on river Brahmaputra by China and claimed it will “destroy” the entire North-East region.
Rajnath Singh alleged the Congress wanted to form a government by dividing the nation on the basis of caste and religion.
“The Congress party has ruled the nation for 65 years by doing only vote-bank politics. The BJP will form a government to build the nation,” he said.
“Congress party is knowingly indulging in vote-bank politics by giving communal colour to the issue of terrorism. Congress leaders have always been indulging in the vote-bank politics at the cost of national interest,” Singh alleged, adding that “BJP is completely against giving any religious colour to terrorism.”
Terming the issues of illegal immigration and internal security as serious, Singh said “with fake currency to the tune of Rs 16,000 crore coming in”, it also posed a serious threat to the country’s economy. (PTI)
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