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What is your record in curbing terror, Congress asks Advani

Special Correspondent

First set your house in order: Singhvi

Afzal Guru was arrested and let off under NDA rule two months before Parliament attack
Why did NDA government capitulate to hijackers?

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday charged the Bharatiya Janata Party with trying to mislead the people with its “double standards” on internal security and terrorism.

Hitting back at senior BJP leader L.K. Advani for his criticism of the United Progressive Alliance government, the Congress asked why the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government was unable to prevent the terror attacks on the Akshardham and Raghunath temples, Parliament and the Red Fort and innumerable similar incidents.

Claiming that the Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru was arrested and let off under the NDA rule two months before the incident took place, the Congress said it would investigate the matter.

The party was reacting to Mr. Advani’s poser at a rally in Madhya Pradesh whether Afzal Guru was given “unofficial clemency” and on the number of terrorist modules busted by the government in the last three-and-half years.

“What is their record when Mr. Advani was Home Minister and later Deputy Prime Minister? The nation wants to know what transpired between the Deputy Prime Minister and the then Foreign Minister [Jaswant Singh], on one side, and the Taliban diplomats, the Afghanistan officials and the hijackers of IC 814, on the other, between December 24 and December 31, 1999,” asked Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi.

“Instead of misleading people, Mr. Advani should tell the nation what led to the sudden capitulation on December 31, 1999 at Kandahar seven days after the hijack. Why did the self-appointed ‘Loh Purush’ [Iron Man] became the ‘soft’ Home Minister sending the Indian Foreign Minister to escort terrorists to Kandahar?”

Mr. Singhvi said the nation must be told why the NDA government released terrorists Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Zargar. “And shortly after that, the same Azhar and his Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked Parliament.”

Questioning the BJP’s authority to “lecture the UPA” on terrorism, he said the Congress did not believe in playing politics on the subject, finger-pointing or creating a climate of insecurity and fear. “The BJP believes in all three.”

He said statistics showed an improvement of 70 per cent in controlling terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. “As far as naxalism is concerned, the most affected was Andhra Pradesh. That has a decline of 70 per cent. Eighty per cent of all naxalite activity is found in three States — Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. The first two are NDA-ruled States and the third was also so till a couple of years ago.”

Mr. Singhvi said instead of creating a climate of fear and insecurity by claiming that one-third of the country was in the grip of terrorism, the BJP leader should first set his house in order and do some soul-searching.

“He should stop being irresponsible and first berate and condemn his own or his allies’ Chief Ministers.”

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