The Hindu : National : BJP seeks U.S. intervention

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BJP seeks U.S. intervention

Special Correspondent

Put pressure on Pakistan to check terrorist activities: Rajnath

— Photo: Vipinchandran

Election mode: BJP president Rajnath Singh at a news conference at Nedumbassery, near Kochi, on Tuesday.

KOCHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh has suggested that the United States get involved in the fight against terrorism in the entire South Asian region.

This was necessary against the backdrop of Monday’s terrorist attack in Lahore and the ‘increasing Talibanisation of Pakistan,’ Mr. Singh, who is on a campaign tour of Kerala, told a press conference at Nedumbassery, near here, on Tuesday.

“The BJP believes that any war against terror and Taliban would not succeed unless it is jointly fought by the U.S. and other prominent players (India and Pakistan) in the South Asian region under the United Nations supervision,” he said in a statement handed out to journalists.

He said the sphere of influence of terrorists in Pakistan, which had earlier been confined to remote areas bordering Afghanistan, was now reaching close to the border with India. The spill over effect would cover the entire South Asia and hence the international community needed to rework its strategy of war on terror. He said that Pakistan was fast becoming a failed State and that such a prospect would create bigger problems for the world, especially for India.

“India should take the international community into confidence to restructure the strategy,” he said. He wanted the Central government to put pressure on the Pakistan government to check terrorist activities there so that they would not spill over to India.

Mr. Singh alleged that his party’s Philbit candidate Varun Gandhi, who has been booked under the National Security Act for his fire-spitting speech against Muslims, was being ‘politically harassed.’ He said that if Mr. Gandhi had broken the code of conduct for candidates, action could be taken against him after the elections, but arresting him under the NSA was unacceptable.

Asked about the electoral prospects of the Third Front, Mr. Singh dismissed the front as a ‘farce.’ The Congress and the Left, he alleged, were practising ‘vote bank politics and crass secularism.’

Mr. Singh said his party was against reservation based on ‘caste, creed, colour and gender’ and that it was strongly opposed to reservation for Muslims recommended by the Ranganath Mishra Committee. Asked if that would mean the 22.5 per cent reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, which mostly benefited Hindus, Mr. Singh said: “No, no, we want the SC/ST reservation to continue.” He was also wanted the reservation for backward castes to stay.

‘PDP communal’

Mr. Singh alleged that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Abdul Nasir Maudany was a communal party. By defending Mr. Maudany, the CPI(M) was putting ‘another question mark on its dubious secular credentials.’ He wanted the CPI(M) and the State government to clarify their stand on the issue. He wanted the Centre to come out with a statement on the ‘network of terrorist organisations’ in Kerala.

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