Friday, Aug 23, 2002
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By Hasan Suroor
Later, Britain's Gujarati Muslims boycotted a reception hosted by the Indian High Commissioner, Ronan Sen, at his residence. In a letter to the High Commissioner on their behalf, the Council of Indian Muslims (U.K.) said that they had decided to stay away in "in view of the inflexible stance of the Deputy Prime Minister in protecting and supporting the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi'' despite allegations of his Government's "collusion with rioters." As Mr. Advani arrived at the India House, a small but determined group of cross-community Asian civil rights activists waved placards and raised slogans condemning the "genocide'' in Gujarat. "Bring the murderers of Gujarat to justice,'' "No to elections in Gujarat,'' "Don't let the BJP profit from genocide'' were some of the slogans that often drowned Mr. Advani's speech on the first floor of the India House overlooking Aldwych. A spokesperson of the South Asian Solidarity Group and Awaaz, which had jointly organised the protest in concert with several Muslim organisations, emphasised that it was not a "Muslim show.'' ``All Indian groups are equally concerned about the massacre in Gujarat and allegations of the State Government's involvement in it. It is not a Muslim issue. Here in Britain, divisive ideas are being promoted by groups such as the Hindu Vishwa Parishad and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh. We are also concerned that these groups are misusing their status as charities to fund communal activities in India and we want Mr. Advani to look into this.'' Mr. Advani, in his speech, said he had seen an "advertisement'' in which Patel had been described as "anti-Muslim.'' This was not true — to call him anti-Muslim was to betray an ignorance. Even Jayaprakash Narayan, who had opposed Patel "thinking he was anti-Muslim,'' had later acknowledged that he had been wrong. Mr. Advani met two Gujarati Muslim leaders who complained about the slow pace of rehabilitation of the victims of violence, and sought protection for the minorities. Ibrahim Master, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosque, described the meeting as "fruitful'' and said that Mr. Advani asked them to put down their concerns in writing. "He promised to take them up with the Prime Minister when he returns to India.'' On Thursday, Mr. Advani met the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, before winding up his three-day visit. The discussions were reported to have centred around measures to increase mutual cooperation in fighting terrorism.
`We are at war with Pak.'
PTI reports: India considers itself ``at war'' with Pakistan over Kashmir, though there is no formal declaration of hostilities, Mr. Advani told Britain's Channel Four television. ``When people ask me will there be a war between India and Pakistan, they are obviously referring to a declared war like that of 1971 or 1965. But for India, we are at war.'' There was no point in resuming talks with Pakistan until cross-border terrorism was stopped, he said adding that cross-border terrorism ``is still considerable, although there has been some reduction in infiltration because of international pressure on Pakistan.'' ``However, infiltration is only one aspect of cross-border terrorism. There are other components — training of terrorists, financing them, providing arms to them, letting terrorist camps continue to function on Pakistani soil.'' Observing that Pakistan was under ``great pressure,'' internationally and internally, he said ``having promoted fundamentalism to harass India, it is facing harassment itself to some extent.'' Mr. Advani accused Pakistan of sabotaging the coming elections in Jammu and Kashmir by creating an atmosphere of fear in the State, but affirmed that the elections would be held on schedule and that they would be free and fair.
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