The Hindu : Isolate states sponsoring terrorism, says Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 06, 2003

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Isolate states sponsoring terrorism, says Advani

By S. Nagesh Kumar

HYDERABAD Jan. 5. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today asserted that the NDA Government was determined to end the menace of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and urged businessmen in Western countries to lend their influential voice to exert pressure on their Governments to turn the heat on states sponsoring terror.

He said terrorism did end in Punjab though, at one time, it appeared that the killing of political leaders would go on forever. "It is going to end in Kashmir too and we are determined to stamp out terrorism from our soil,'' he asserted.

Making no secret of India's resentment at the way Western countries were soft-pedalling Pak-sponsored terrorism, he said the least they could do was to remain faithful to their affirmations to fight terrorism by not supporting states aiding terrorist outfits that had openly declared India as their target.

Mr. Advani said Pakistan's "self-serving propaganda that what was happening in Kashmir was a `freedom struggle' had failed to convince the world community which had also seen the stark contrast between the elections in J&K and the ones in Pakistan. Unlike in Pakistan, no party or leader in India was threatened with `dire consequences' if he did not fall in line".

Inaugurating the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) ninth Partnership Summit here, the Deputy Prime Minister said the scope of reforms would now extend beyond the economic framework to areas like administration, judiciary and governance to enable businesses to grow faster and in a hassle-free environment.

He was unhappy with the slow pace of reforms in the power sector and called for a national consensus on the issue. He attributed this to the tendency of political parties to follow power reforms in States where they were at the helm and oppose them where they were in the Opposition and quoted the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu's lament on this score at the National Development Council meetings. "My party, the BJP, is also guilty of this,'' he confessed.

He made it clear that the NDA Government would not imitate any particular model of reforms, be it on the issue of foreign direct investment or disinvestment of public sector undertakings. It would be guided primarily by national interests and fair competition.

Mr. Advani sought to project a `feel good' message to the gathering, which included captains of the Indian industry and those from 23 other countries. He said there was remarkable stability in the country on the political front, the economy was resilient, Gujarat violence was firmly behind the nation and terrorism was under check.

Mr. Advani called for major reforms in the system of agriculture markets, the PDS and in the FCI's functioning to tackle the problem of food surplus.

Mr. Naidu, in a power point presentation, referred to the vertical growth in the BPO (business processes outsourcing) market with the total number of U.S. jobs moving offshore rising to 3.3 million by 2015. He did not see the flight of professionals from India as `brain drain' saying that it would be `brain gain' when they returned.

The CII president, Ashok Soota, said India would be among the top 20 economies if it addressed issues relating to the achievement of a two-digit growth in GDP.

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