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Stop running to U.S.: Shourie tells government

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday assured the government its support for a full-scale war against terrorism but asked the Centre to stop “running” to the United States in the hope that it would come to its rescue in tackling Pakistan-backed terrorism.

“Please stop running to ‘mummy’ [U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] whose government, in any case, is going in five weeks. This business of putting faith in someone else to tackle Pakistan-based terrorism must stop,” BJP member and former Minister Arun Shourie said in the Rajya Sabha while initiating a discussion.

The government must shed the “mis-called” peace process and the line that terrorists would not be allowed to derail the process. “They go on with terrorist acts and put the onus of keeping the peace process going on India. Shed this.”

The government had “routinised” threats of terror attacks through sea routes. To ask Pakistan to jointly probe the Mumbai attacks was like living in a fool’s paradise. On the eve of the attacks, Home Ministry officials were in Islamabad “noting with satisfaction” the progress made in the talks and “condemning terrorism in all its forms.”

The government should not go by joint statements signed by Pakistan leaders. Pakistan’s ISI and the power of its army depended on hostility with India. “We are united in the war on terrorism but the government must recognise that no war can be won with a strategy of permanent defence.”

Senior Congress leader Karan Singh countered Mr. Shourie by making the point that India needed to take the entire international community “on our side” to combat terrorism. Stopping the “peace process” with Pakistan was “not acceptable.” The Mumbai attacks exposed serious flaws in the country’s security system and the government must take disciplinary action against those who failed.

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