The Hindu : India's concerns not addressed: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 08, 2003

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India's concerns not addressed: BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 7. Taking its cue from the Government, the Bharatiya Janata Party today appeared to be less than enthused by the offer of the Pakistani Prime Minister, Mir Jafarullah Khan Jamali, to restore civilian air and rail links with India and resume full diplomatic ties by strengthening its High Commission here.

The party spokesperson, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, described Mr. Jamali's offer as "inadequate, insufficient and superfluous". The core reason for the tension between the two countries was cross-border terrorism and the training camps for terrorists in the Pakistan-held Kashmir, Mr. Malhotra pointed out, and "he (Mr. Jamali) has said or done nothing to address this concern".

For the relations between India and Pakistan to return to even the not-so-warm level that existed before the December 13, 2001, attack on Parliament, Pakistan would have to deal with the issue of terrorism, the training camps for terrorists and the wide ISI network it had set up here. Unless some positive movement could be seen on this, no announcements would help, Mr. Malhotra added.

So far, Pakistan's Government has not only done nothing it has not even said it would do something about this issue or terrorism which is of prime concern to India.

Asked whether "other countries" would put pressure on India to respond to Mr. Jamali's gesture more positively, Mr. Malhotra said that India was the victim of repeated terrorist attacks, it had lost thousands of innocent men and women to this senseless violence, and "other countries" should surely understand India's concern.

The party welcomed the Cabinet decision to bring legislation to ban cow slaughter throughout the country and separately to repeal the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal Act. The continuing slaughter of cows in some States was hurting the sentiments of Hindus, he said, and the IMDT Act had proved counter-productive. He hinted that if the Opposition parties defeated it in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP-led Government would use the joint session to get the IMDT Act repealed.

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