The Hindu : National : BJP attacks Sonia on Gujarat poll campaign

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Thursday, Dec 06, 2007
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BJP attacks Sonia on Gujarat poll campaign

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday criticised Congress president Sonia Gandhi for making references to terrorist attacks during the National Democratic Alliance regime during her campaign in Gujarat for the coming Assembly elections.

“I agree, terrorist attacks took place under the NDA rule, but all the terrorists responsible for these were either killed or caught,” senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said in the Lok Sabha while initiating a discussion on internal security.

He flayed Ms. Gandhi for referring to communal violence in Gujarat but maintaining silence on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. She was also quiet on the issue of Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to migrate from their home State due to terrorism, Mr. Malhotra said.

Accusing the UPA government of being soft in tackling terrorism, he said the handicap was also due to the absence of a special anti-terorrist law such as POTA.

Nikhil Kumar of the Congress argued that special laws such as POTA and TADA had not been of any help in checking the spread of terrorism. The Congress member said that the threat of naxalism was much more serious than the one posed by terrorism.

Mohammad Salim of the CPI(M) said challenges to the country’s internal security were manifold.

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