The Hindu : Vajpayee Govt. to blame for poor relations with neighbours: Gujral

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 03, 2003

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Vajpayee Govt. to blame for poor relations with neighbours: Gujral

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 2. While arguing in favour of restoring people-to-people contacts between India and Pakistan, the former Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, today expressed the hope that such informal relations would help in normalising Indo-Pak. ties.

Rapping the Vajpayee Government for what he called was a "sharp deterioration'' in India's relations with its neighbours like Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Mr. Gujral wondered what kind of future was being shaped up by the BJP-led coalition regime for the country.

Addressing the concluding session of the "People's Integration Council'' here, he said: "Our neighbours are like our own brothers. We enjoy age-old relations with them on the basis of language, religion, emotion and history. If we cannot have good relations with our neighbours, what kind of ties will we have with other nations?''

On India's friendship and close ties with the U.S., he said that friendly Indo-U.S. ties were a "different priority'' which should not prevent people-to-people contacts with Pakistan from being restored.

While admitting that the military dictatorship in Islamabad had a "vested interest'' in keeping the ties with New Delhi always on the boil as 60 per cent of that country's budget was meant only for defence purposes, Mr. Gujral said that the common people in both the countries yearned for peace and normal relations.

He said the Government should make all out efforts to strengthen relations with Dhaka as it was India that had played a pivotal role in liberating Bangladesh even at the cost of the lives of its men in uniform.

"What happened to Nepal? It is a Hindu nation and even our relations with it are not as good as they should have been. In Sri Lanka, you have a nation from a far-flung part of the world working for peace in the island nation. What kind of India are we building for the future,'' he asked.

Emphasising the need to bind the nation together through secular and democratic values, Mr. Gujral said India's diverse cultural and religious heritage had played a key role in keeping the people together.

In his opinion, secularism remained a "positive factor'' — a tool of taking the nation to a scientific age — and was imbued with a modern outlook to modernise the nation. "Building a modern, scientific nation is a commitment given in the Constitution. Only backward societies have divisive tendencies,'' he told the delegates.

While asserting that elections were a salient feature of a vibrant democracy, Mr. Gujral said that democracy itself could not be either "saffron, green or blue.''

Pledging the support of the Rashtriya Janata Dal to the initiative taken by the `People's Integration Council' in maintaining national unity, the party MP, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, cautioned against dangers posed by regional disparities and communal forces.

The Congress spokesman, Jaipal Reddy, stressed on three crucial factors — economic growth, social justice and effective governance — for taking the country ahead on the path of development and harmony.

Other speakers included the Lok Janshakti leader, Ram Vilas Paswan, the Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, and the CPI(M) leader from Jammu and Kashmir, Yusuf Tarigami.

It is a gimmick: Venkaiah NEW DELHI FEB. 2. Criticising the setting up of a Peoples' Integration Council, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, today said raising the "bogey of communalism'' and talking about "secularism under great stress'' was "highly objectionable''.

Describing the council as a "gimmick'' he said the real purpose was to bring together the non-BJP Opposition, a mission that was bound to "flop''. The Congress and other parties had not learnt the right lessons from Gujarat and they had failed to gauge the mood of the nation, he said.

While the Congress was opposed to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), it had "quietly invoked it in Maharashtra'', he said. He questioned the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister's demand for a ban on cow slaughter and alleged that the Congress was "silent'' on the large-scale illegal immigration of Bangladeshis into India.

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