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BJP: federal agency ‘yes’, but sans tough law probe will come to naught

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s suggestion for setting up a federal investigation agency as “a step in the right direction,” but warned that any probe would come to naught without a tougher law to deal with terrorist crimes.

Reacting to the resignation of Shivraj Patil as Union Home Minister and of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil in the wake of last week’s terror attacks in Mumbai, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said this action would not solve the problem of tackling terrorism. “It shows the government is in crisis. The Lok Sabha election campaign is barely 100 days away … this scenario of resignations has come when the cracking up of the ‘raj’ in Delhi is evident. This is effectively a blame game, search for scapegoats.”

Mr. Jaitley did not reply to questions why the National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not own moral responsibility after the Parliament House attack or the disastrous handling of the Kandahar hijack of an Indian Airlines plane, and why none quit owning moral responsibility when more than 200 people died in a stampede at a temple just outside Jodhpur in the BJP-ruled Rajasthan in September.

To another question, Mr. Jaitley said last week’s Mumbai attack was certainly India’s 9/11. “Our response must be close to what the American response was.”

As for Pakistan, he said: “It was now an admitted position that Pakistani soil was used to mount this monumental conspiracy against India. The entire Pakistan establishment could not have been entirely unaware for, clearly the planning would have taken months. This time Pakistan is not entitled to be given the benefit of the doubt.”

However, Mr. Jaitley stopped short of asking India to attack Pakistan militarily. He said it was for the government to assess the situation.

It may be recalled that the Vajpayee government responded to the attack on Parliament by mobilising troops along the border in ‘Operation Parakram’ during which not a shot was fired at the ‘enemy’ but several hundred Indian soldiers died in the mobilisation process.

As for the BJP’s poll advertisements adverting to the Mumbai attacks, Mr. Jaitley said: “In an election we reserve the right to criticise [the opposing party], which we did.”

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh called for a “national consensus and will as the first prerequisite for fighting terrorism.”

Its general secretary Mohan Bhagwat said: “Major attitudinal and systemic changes have to be brought about. I hope that the discourse on terrorism would hereafter transcend narrow political considerations and the nation will demonstrate maturity and a sincere will to deal with this threat.”

Separately, BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, responding to a controversy over his remark criticising Mumbai’s protesters for singling out politicians to vent their anger, said that in all this understandable public anger, it should not be forgotten that politicians gave this country a stable democratic system.

“We take that for granted and will learn how precious it is only if we lose it, as some of our neighbouring countries have [lost],” he said on his return here from Mumbai.

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