The Hindu : National : Hot pursuit is not an option, says Jaswant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 15, 2006

National

National

Hot pursuit is not an option, says Jaswant

Neena Vyas

"Pakistan must deliver on commitment"

NEW DELHI: It will be "utterly naive" to say that Pakistan is involved in the Mumbai blasts and other acts of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country and then suggest that the horror of 7/11 will have no effect on going forward with confidence building measures between India and Pakistan, according to Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh.

The former External Affairs Minister said here on Friday that while Pakistan must deliver on its commitment made to the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in Islamabad in January 2004 not to allow territory under its control to be used for cross-border terrorism, "hot pursuit was not an option" for India.

The commitment made by Pakistan was itself a major confidence building measure that was not implemented. "Dismantling of terrorism was the first CBM of importance, without which there cannot be any confidence in the CBMs."

Rejecting a suggestion made by a party colleague on Thursday that India should opt for a "hot pursuit" strategy — meaning that Indian security forces should go after the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir — Mr. Singh stated categorically that this was "not an option."

But that did not mean the United Progressive Alliance Government had no other options. For once, it had sent a wrong signal by repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Its enactment by the National Democratic Alliance regime was a signal that it was committed to eliminating the scourge of terrorism, and now the opposite signal had been given.

He charged the Congress with arriving at an understanding with terrorist outfits for electoral gain. He accused the ruling party of having an electoral understanding with the ULFA in Assam and with the naxals operating in Andhra Pradesh. While he was all for a dialogue with all groups, he was critical of the Andhra Pradesh Government agreeing to hold talks with naxals without a pre-condition that they should give up their arms. Guns and dialogue could not go together, he emphasised.

Denies charge

Defending the BJP resolution adopted a day after 7/11, which asked the Government to either govern or get out, Mr. Singh denied that the BJP was trying to create communal tensions in the country in the wake of the Mumbai tragedy. "Terrorism should not be linked to any faith, it is an evil that must be eliminated." But, the "external aid to terrorism that was aided, abetted and supported by an infrastructure must not be forgotten," he emphasised.

"Drift in approach"

While strongly supporting the idea of an India that was an open and accommodative society — his party was against India becoming a police state or militarist like the United States — he made the point that the UPA had displayed a "remarkable drift in approach" that was sending all the wrong signals and creating an environment that breeds and promotes terrorism.

"Every incident of terrorism, every death that occurs diminishes all of us because every life lost is valuable and cannot be reduced to a number."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National