States must back Centre's plan: Laxman

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, NOV. 26. It is time the State Governments supported the Centre's proposal to enact a law and form a force to deal with ``federal crimes'', specially those involving extremist forces, the BJP president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, said here today.

Mr. Laxman told presspersons that the fact that the Centre's proposal merited serious attention was illustrated by the abduction of the popular Kannada actor, Mr. Rajkumar, by Veerappan and the growing activities of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in many parts of the country.

Mr. Laxman regretted that many Chief Ministers at the recent conference on internal security had rejected the proposal made by the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, on the ground that such a law would infringe on the powers of the States as law and order was a State subject.

Mr. Laxman criticised the ``hypocrisy'' of the Left Front Government in West Bengal which had admitted, albeit belatedly, the growing menace of the ISI in the State, but refused to cooperate with the Centre even on the issue of the visit of Central observers to study the law and order situation there.

The irony was the mysterious ``shyness'' mixed with the silence of the various State Governments led by the non-BJP parties about ISI activities in their States.

Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh kept on denying ISI activities in that State, and so did Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar despite intelligence reports on the fast- spreading ISI network in those States, Mr. Laxman said.

In dealing with terrorist, extremist and other subversive forces, the country could not allow its resolve and capability to be weakened for lack of consensus and coordination between the Centre and the States, Mr. Laxman said, and urged all sections of society to recognise that international terrorism was an altogether new kind of threat to the country's internal and external security.

Expressing joy at the release of Mr. Rajkumar by Veerappan, Mr. Laxman said that the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Governments should work out a common strategy against the brigand and implement it effectively. The Union Government was ready to give any kind of assistance to the two States, he said.

Ceasefire in J&K

Condemning the recent killing of innocent bus passengers by suspected militants of the Lashkar-e- Taiba in Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Laxman said this was a clear attempt by anti-India forces to subvert the Ramzan ceasefire announced by the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B.Vajpayee.

The Prime Minister's initiative was an important milestone in efforts to restore peace and tranquility in Jammu and Kashmir, but the sudden volte-face by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and its rejection of the offer demonstrated that it had been completely isolated in the State and its sympathisers had been reduced to a handful. There should, however, be no slackening in the preparedness to tackle any kind of violence by those who took advantage of the ceasefire to perpetrate acts of terrorism, he said.

Reforms in banking

Mr. Laxman described as a disinformation campaign the interpretation by the Left parties and its front organisations that the proposed reforms in the banking sector would lead to privatisation. This was being done to strengthen the working of the banks since three of the 19 nationalised banks were already in the red and three others were going the same way.

The BJP president said a condition had been put that when the banks sold their shares, no corporate or individual could buy more than one per cent of them, to prevent any kind of takeover. The Government was not going to reduce its stake in the banks. Its control over the banking sector would continue and so would the social obligations of the nationalised banks.

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