NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Arun Jaitley on Monday charged the United Progressive Alliance Government with having virtually no strategy to deal with the situation in Assam where renewed violence by the United Liberation Front of Asom left more than 50 migrant labourers dead.

Mr. Jaitley said the Centre did not know whether it wanted to negotiate a ceasefire with ULFA or unleash police action on the insurgents.

The other more serious charge levelled by him against the Centre was that during the last elections in Assam the Congress had a "covert alliance" with the ULFA. "That was the cardinal sin committed by the Congress and the people are now paying the wages of that sin," he said. Political flirtation with militants always extracted a heavy price, he added.

The BJP had been alleging that the Congress was "soft on terror" and that it did not give internal security issues the importance they deserved. "Internal security has never been a priority issue for the UPA. Its 32-page common minimum programme hardly mentions internal security. The only brief reference to it is where the UPA promises to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act," Mr. Jaitley said.

BJP president Rajnath Singh is to visit Dibrugarh and Tinsukhia on Tuesday to assess the situation.

Mr. Jaitley also charged the Government with misusing the CBI, citing the lack of an appeal in the disproportionate assets cases against JMM leader Shibu Soren and RJD president Lalu Prasad.

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