Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120561241300.htm

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BJP offers support for stern steps against Pakistan

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party has conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee that the party will “stand by the government” if effective steps are taken against Pakistan.

Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh told reporters here on Thursday that he had conveyed the party’s support to the government. He was addressing a press conference immediately after the party’s core committee meeting held to discuss the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

He said it was for the government to assess what steps were required. The BJP wanted that consensus must arise after a process of consultation, not “ex post facto,” and there must be a “full and comprehensive sharing of facts.”

While not clearly spelling out whether it favoured exercising the military option, party leaders defended the policy of not crossing the Line of Control even during the Kargil war operations when a BJP-led government was in power. That was the right thing to do, party leaders said while defending troop mobilisation on the border that took place after the attack on Parliament.

Mr. Jaswant Singh virtually charged Pakistan with resorting to blackmail by telling the West it would withdraw its forces from the North-West border with Afghanistan. “We hope that you [the U.S. and NATO countries] will see through the attempt that is being made at blackmail by insinuating that unless you [the West] toes its line, Pakistan may dilute even such cooperation as it is giving in the fight against jihadi terrorism,” the party stated.

A separate statement issued by BJP president Rajnath Singh warned the international community that it should consider the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of “non-State actors” over whom the Pakistan President has virtually admitted having no control. “Should such a country be allowed to possess nuclear weapons at all?”

At the core committee meeting the BJP decided to support the setting up of a federal security and investigative agency and a federal law to deal with terrorism. It also said there must be a uniform law to deal with terror. The party stressed that at every stage India should communicate effectively with the international community.