The Hindu : Priority for controlling violence, says Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 02, 2002

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Priority for controlling violence, says Advani
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 1. The Government today seemed to be pointing the ``needle of suspicion'' as regards the Godhra incident on Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). This view was gaining ground as ``fomenting communal trouble'' was an important part of the ``overall ISI strategy,'' it was pointed out.

However, this view was clearly not shared by all in the Government for the Minister of State for External Affairs, Omar Abdullah, has firmly rejected such a hypothesis.

The ``ISI theory'' was not officially stated. As highly placed sources in the Government admitted that ``as yet'' they had ``no hard evidence'' to pinpoint ISI's involvement. It was the total circumstances of the terrorist strikes in India that the suspicion seemed to be based on.

Although reports did not as yet indicate a respite to Gujarat violence, the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, while talking informally with reporters, appeared confident that not only will the administration be able to bring back normality but the Ayodhya issue would also be resolved amicably. But, for the moment the top priority was controlling and containing the violence.

The Bharatiya Janata Party today was angry that the Opposition did not allow Parliament to function and had rejected a suggestion that all parties should adopt a ``joint statement'' in Parliament to help cool the communal temperature.

While stating that efforts were on to get the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to stop its 100-days ``yagna'' in Ayodhya, the BJP spokesperson, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, strongly criticised ``selective condemnation'' of the violent incidents by some parties. He virtually implied that had it not been for that, the situation in Gujarat could not have taken such a turn.

Mr. Malhotra said the Government had acted swiftly and there was no delay in deployment of the Army. Even during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi the Army was brought out after a few days, he pointed out.

It seems that after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the first time in the morning, the Speaker called a meeting of party leaders and the former Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, suggested that the Prime Minister call another all-party meeting - which was done - and that Parliament be allowed to function, the Home Minister be allowed to make a statement and afterwards a ``joint resolution'' be adopted condemning all violence and appealing for peace. Apparently, the Congress did not go along with the joint resolution idea.

It seems that after some heated arguments at the meeting where charges and counter charges were made, the decision was that Parliament would not be allowed to function today, and that was what happened. Later Mr. Malhotra described the Opposition behaviour as undemocratic and against parliamentary traditions.

With media reports also suggesting that the Gujarat Government had not taken timely action and the police stood and watched the violence and arson, the BJP condemned the non- observance of a code of conduct by the press. Mr Malhotra charged that a section of the media only publicised violent incidents when Muslims were victims. But when asked to give concrete instances, Mr. Malhotra said he was only talking about a ``section'' of the media.

Like the Government, the party has also from the day of the Godhra incident, not ruled out the possibility of the hand of some terrorist outfits, or even the ISI, in what happened there. What they seem certain about was that the Godhra attack was pre-meditated. The train had stopped for just 5 minutes - between 7.43 and 7.48 a.m. - on that fateful day. But after it moved out, it was stopped a kilometre away where a mob seemed to be ready to perpetrate the worse kind of carnage.

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