The Hindu : Front Page : Centre not paying enough attention to security: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 12, 2004

Front Page

Centre not paying enough attention to security: Advani

By Neena Vyas and agencies

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 11. A two-day conference of the Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Ministers got under way here today with the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, telling them to "relate good governance to cultural nationalism which is our forte."

Mr. Advani told the Chief Ministers that they need not be apologetic about the "sanskritik rashtravad" (cultural nationalism) that was the party's ideology. The party's "tiranga [tricolour] yatra" led by the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, and its agitation on the Savarkar plaque issue were "nationalist" issues.

``Don't be apologetic''

Mr. Advani said that "our critics may be sarcastic about it but the fact is that our cultural nationalism is very old. We should not be apologetic for our stand on any issue of nationalism. We should be proud of it."

Mr. Advani said the Manmohan Singh Government was not paying adequate attention to national security and criticised its decision to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) while lifting the ban on the People's War.

The consolidation of Maoist elements in Nepal should be a cause for concern for at least six States in India up to Andhra Pradesh, but the Government was talking of removing the ban on the PW and revoking POTA.

He said the joint statement by Mr. Vajpayee and the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, was the high point of the India-Pakistan relationship and a major breakthrough. Its contents should be implemented in "letter and spirit.

The conference stressed the need for incentives and disincentives to make a two-child population policy effective, infrastructure development and, above all, the need for the BJP Chief Ministers to get the feedback from the party legislators on ongoing projects and to assess how effectively the benefits reached the people.

While the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, advised the Chief Ministers to focus on education, health, electricity, water, roads and "promote the two-child norm among all sections of society," Mr. Advani dwelt at length on terrorism, pointing out that "today was the anniversary of 9/11." He felt that in its 100 days the United Progressive Alliance Government had not given any indication of a well-thought-out policy on how to handle terrorism and other security issues.

Nine principles

Mr. Advani emphasised four points — sangharsh (struggle), samraksha (security), sanghatan (organisation), which were mentioned by the first president of the BJP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when it was founded in 1980, and added a fourth point, sushasan (good governance).

Mr. Naidu commended his own five S's — sampark (contact with the people), samvaad (dialogue or communication with the people), sahayog (understanding people's grievances), sahabhag (making people partners in development, and samanvay (coordination between party and the government). If these points were kept in mind then the State Governments would create santosh or satisfaction among the people, Mr. Naidu said.

Today's was the first BJP Chief Ministers' conference which was attended by the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Goa, Babulal Gaur, Vasundhara Raje, Raman Singh, Arjun Munda, Narendra Modi and Manohar Parrikar. Mr. Naidu indicated that he would like such an event to take place every six months.

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