The Hindu : New Delhi News : Mumbai attacks cast a shadow on Delhi polls

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Friday, Nov 28, 2008
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New Delhi

Mumbai attacks cast a shadow on Delhi polls

Staff Reporter

Election rallies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L. K. Advani cancelled

Congress governments at the Centre and in Delhi soft on terror: BJP
Ironical that the BJP should be talking about how to deal with terrorism: Congress

NEW DELHI: The terrorist attacks in Mumbai cast a deep shadow on campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections on Thursday, the last day of campaigning. Election rallies of both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L. K. Advani were cancelled.

Security was beefed up at public meetings addressed by all the candidates, particularly Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra, before the campaigning finally came to a close at 5 p.m.

The violence also shifted the focus of attention of both the Congress and the BJP as they sought to make political capital out of it two days ahead of the polling on Saturday.

For his part, Prof. Malhotra again attacked the Congress governments at the Centre and in Delhi of being “soft on terror”. He said the file on Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru was still lying with the Delhi Government and this indicated its approach to terrorism.

Prof. Malhotra also expressed his sympathies for the families of the police officers, personnel and other innocent people who have lost their lives in Mumbai. “Had the brave police personnel not put up such a determined fight, the magnitude of human loss would have been much greater.” Referring to the Malegaon investigations, he said: “The attention from the real culprits disturbing our lives has been diverted in recent weeks as new imaginary agents of terrorism have been discovered within the country. Instead of keeping the gaze on the real terrorists out to halt our progress and to sully our image of peace and tranquillity, efforts have been directed to discover Hindu terrorists, leading the investigating agencies nowhere.”

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J. P. Agarwal in turn attacked the BJP saying: “Only a mentally unstable party like the BJP could accuse the Congress of not doing enough to tackle terrorism. The Congress and its top leaders have sacrificed their lives to tackle terrorism.”

Pleading that the Mumbai happenings should not be politicised, Mr. Agarwal said it is ironical that those who had flown with terrorists to Kandahar to set them free were now talking about how terrorism should be dealt with.

“When Mr. Advani was the Deputy Prime Minister, there were terrorist attacks on Red Fort and Parliament House. Where were the BJP leadership’s nationalist feelings when they helplessly witness the Parliament House being attacked by terrorists,” he asked.

Meanwhile, the BJP candidate from New Delhi, Vijay Jolly – who is up against Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit – and his supporters wore black bands during the day and engaged in a silent campaign to protest against the terror attack in Mumbai. Later they burnt effigies of Afzal Guru, Ms. Dikshit and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to protest against the approach of the Congress governments at the Centre and in Delhi on terrorism.

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