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Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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Developments are of special concern to India: BJP

Special Correspondent

Virtual martial law and harmful to Pakistan, says CPI(M)

“Those who imposed emergency cannot be reliable allies”
Comparisons drawn with emergency in India

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have expressed serious concern over the declaration of emergency in Pakistan and sympathised with the struggle of Pakistan people for democracy.

The CPI (M) Polit Bureau in a statement on Sunday said: “The developments in Pakistan are a matter of deep concern. The imposition of emergency is virtual martial law and harmful to the country. The people of Pakistan are overwhelmingly in favour of a democratic set-up,” it said and expressed support for forces struggling to restore democracy.

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani and Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Arun Jaitley, in a statement, pointed out that “the developments are of special concern to India as Pakistan is our immediate neighbour.”

Mr. Advani emphasised that in Pakistan the struggle for democracy was entwined with and inseparable from the struggle against terrorism fuelled by religious extremism.

He warned the international community that those who had imposed emergency could not be reliable allies in the struggle against “jehadi terrorism.”

He expressed the hope that the Pakistan people’s struggle for democracy and the rule of law would soon succeed.

Mr. Jaitley compared the emergency in Pakistan to 1975 in India, saying that time and again emergencies were declared by governments to subvert democratic constitutions and to institutionalise personal power through totalitarianism. While the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used attempts at destabilisation as an alibi for imposing emergency, Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf used terrorism and judicial encroachment into the executive domain as excuses for imposition of emergency.

“Elimination of any form of dissent is a natural corollary to any emergency, and together with this, almost inevitably, there is the projection of the ‘dictator’ as the ‘saviour’ of the nation,” Mr. Jaitley said.

“Ironical”

Ironically, the developments in Pakistan took place when Congress president Sonia Gandhi was in Gujarat accusing the BJP and the Narendra Modi government of being heartless and lacking concern for people. It was ironical because the Congress under Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency 32 years ago, he said.

“Those born in India after 1975 need to remind themselves about what happened.” The Indian people overcame the Emergency, he and hoped that the people of Pakistan too would emerge victorious.

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