The Hindu : U.S. encouraging terrorism: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 08, 2003

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U.S. encouraging terrorism: BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 7. The Bharatiya Janata Party today directly accused the United States of "encouraging terrorism'' instead of fighting it, by rewarding Pakistan, which has used terrorism as an instrument of state policy, with a recently-announced $ one billion debt write-off.

The party, which had supported its Government joining the U.S.-led global campaign against terrorism after September 11, 2001, was critical of the U.S. although there was no direct response from its spokesperson, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, when he was asked whether the Vajpayee Government would now declare that it is no longer a partner in that global campaign. "Whatever the Government is doing is right,'' he said.

Mr. Malhotra took exception to America's objection to a recent statement by the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, that India had more reason to militarily attack Pakistan than the U.S. had for attacking Iraq.

The party spokesperson charged the U.S. of "going back on its promise to tackle Pakistan after the war against Afghanistan,'' but did not say when and where the Americans had given such an assurance.

When asked whether India would support military action by the U. S. against Pakistan, Mr. Malhotra said "it should be done with United Nations approval,'' for there was no doubt that Pakistan was the "epicentre of terrorism'' and the U.S. softness towards Pakistan was encouraging terrorism and "helping the leader of global terrorism, that is Pakistan.''

Mr. Malhotra was also unhappy that the Opposition was not agreeing to the Government draft on a possible parliamentary resolution on Iraq. The Opposition was quibbling about words `deplore' and `condemn' when the fact was that "neither the Nehru Government deplored or condemned the Soviet invasion of Hungary nor the Indira Gandhi Government said one harsh word about the Soviet march on Czechoslovakia.''

He also said that while the BJP was aghast that the sovereign State of Iraq had been attacked in a brazen manner, the party did not approve of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, trying to turn it into a `jehad.' The fact was that many Muslim States had directly or indirectly helped the war effort of the U. S. whereas many non-Muslim States, including India, were more vocal in their criticism of the unjustified invasion of Iraq. Why bring in `jehad' with all its religious connotations?

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