Govt. will not swerve from chosen path, says Advani

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 9. In a message calculated to signal the Government's firmness of purpose in the post-Hizbul Mujahideen ceasefire scenario in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, today asserted that the insurgent groups better watch out. Declaring that the security forces were ready to ``face the challenge and threat of renewed militancy'', he warned that ``it is the militant outfits which should worry'' because the Indian forces were ready for them.

There was an unmistakable note of toughness in Mr. Advani's statement, made in both Houses of Parliament. (However, in the Rajya Sabha, the Home Minister refrained from ``clarifications'', as per an agreement thrashed out with the Deputy Chairperson). The statement reflects an anxiety to assure the country that even though the Government had probably made many miscalculations in its approach to the Hizbul ceasefire offer, it was not going to get caught napping now. He added that while ``India will not deviate from its chosen course of talks'' with all those who want a dialogue, ``we shall persist with our policy of firmness and flexibility''. But the official assessment is that the Syed Salahuddin faction would want to stage a bloody event just to prove it was alive and kicking.

Hurriyat attacked

Mr. Advani was also harsh on the All-Party Hurriyat Conference leadership for its ``negative role'' in the entire episode. He wondered how the Hurriyat leadership could label the Hizbul move as ``hasty'' while Jammu and Kashmir had been bleeding for over a decade. His own inference was that ``the Hurriyat leadership was acting under pressure from Pakistan. They certainly did not act in the interests of Jammu and Kashmir and thus compromised the well-being of the people of the State.''

The Home Minister also elaborated the charge made yesterday in the Government's statement on Pakistan's culpability in sabotaging the peace process. ``It is clear that the voice that made the announcement may have been Salahuddin's, but the words came from the ruling establishment in Islamabad which is the arch patron for numerous militant groups engaged in state- sponsored cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India,'' he added. For good measure, the Home Minister predicted that Pakistan's ``proxy war'' would meet the same fate that befell its Kargil misadventure.

Mr. Advani also claimed that it was more than clear, at home and abroad, that while India was committed to peace in Kashmir it was Pakistan that was using terrorism as an instrument of diplomacy. ``Not only the people of Kashmir but also people all over the world now clearly know who is for peace and who is for hostilities; whose is the voice of sanity and humanity and whose is a voice of subterfuge and sabotage,'' argued Mr. Advani.

PM reviews situation

While the Home Minister was spelling out the Government's thinking in the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister, along with senior ministers and officials, reviewed the situation. Among those who helped Mr. Vajpayee made sense of the new situation were the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, the Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. V. P. Malik, the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary, Mr. Brajesh Mishra, and the Union Home Secretary, Mr. Kamal Pande.

Perhaps the next crucial judgment the Indian officials have to make is as to whether there is a convergence or divergence between the Islamabad-based Syed Salahuddin and the Srinagar- based Mr. Abdul Majid Dar. Mr. Advani's statement rather subtly refers to this possibility: ``The offer of ceasefire was made by Mr. Majid Dar, a leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Srinagar. It was withdrawn by Salahuddin.''

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