Date:13/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/13/stories/2008011354480800.htm

National

Take up intrusion issue with China: BJP

R. Ramabhadran Pillai

KOCHI: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the issue of “intrusion into Indian territory” with the Chinese authorities.

At a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Rajnath Singh alleged that there was repeated intrusion into Indian territory, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh.

He appealed to the Prime Minister, who is on a visit to China, to reiterate that India would not compromise on the issue. The Minister’s statement on the issue indicated that he had accepted the intrusions, the BJP leader said.

Mr. Rajnath Singh said the Congress had been held hostage to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) politics. The CPI(M)’s leanings to China was a well-known fact, he added

Price rise

“The Congress is paying a ransom [to CPI-M]. It is adversely affecting governance. The people of India are paying a heavy price for it,” he said. The BJP was of the opinion that the CPI(M) was misusing power, without responsibility.

The United Progressive Alliance government had failed to contain the prices, he said. “We kept the prices under control for six years.” The government could not do it during the three-and-a-half years of its rule. The people were suffering due to price rise.

“Religious intolerance”

The CPI(M)-led government in Kerala was practising religious intolerance. It had not even spared churches and insulted the Christian ethos.

The State government was encouraging fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism. The government had cultivated a culture of political violence against its opponents. The State had suffered from the fight within the party and the government.

Expressing concern over the government’s policy on the Sabarimala temple, he said the arrangements made by the government for lakhs of Sabarimala devotees were inadequate. “The Sabarimala Temple Board is packed with Leftists and non-believers. Funds meant to develop the temple are diverted to other causes.”

BJP all-India secretary in-charge of Kerala, Balbir Poonj, State president P.K. Krishna Das, and State general secretary A.N. Radhakrishnan, were present.