The Hindu : Pak. proxy war on the way to being defeated: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 21, 2003

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Pak. proxy war on the way to being defeated: Advani

By Neena Vyas

RAIPUR JULY 20. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, on Sunday painted a very optimistic picture of India's war against counter-terrorism saying that the proxy war launched by Pakistan against India in 1979 was today "on the way to being defeated". Espionage rings and ISI modules across the country had been smashed, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was limping back to normalcy and India had successfully mobilised world opinion against Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism, he said.

Addressing the concluding session of the three-day Bharatiya Janata Party national executive committee meeting here, Mr. Advani focussed mainly on the national security scenario besides Ayodhya. On the Ram Janmabhoomi issue he suggested that a large number of Muslim organisations and individuals were interested in seeing the dispute resolved and that this had "unfrozen" the Ayodhya issue. Certainly, a settlement of the Ayodhya problem through dialogue and negotiations was the best solution, he said.

Turning back to the relations with Pakistan, he said that even as the Prime Minister had launched a peace initiative to normalise relations, India had not lowered its guard. Almost simultaneously with the peace moves, "Operation Sarp Vinash" had been launched in Jammu to seek out and destroy militant hideouts.

His address to the 125-member strong executive saw "positive" changes in the attitude of Muslim countries and Muslims everywhere post-September 11. Muslims were distancing themselves from terrorism, and he noted that of all those arrested for being part of the Al-Qaeda network, not one was an Indian although India had the world's second largest Muslim population. He pointed out that in Qatar a recent constitutional amendment had given the non-Muslim minorities the right to worship according to their faith and practice their own religion.

In 1998 when the Vajpayee Government gave the green signal to Pokhran nuclear tests it demonstrated that unlike previous regimes it had the will to overcome pressure from big powers.

To prove his point that the situation in Kashmir had changed dramatically, he read out some statistics: tourists grew from 322 in 1995 to nearly 90,000 till July this year and the number of Amarnath pilgrims had gone up from just 4,000 six years ago to over 80,000 this year. In the last few years 182 ISI modules had been broken and 93 "espionage rings" had been busted, Mr. Advani claimed.

And finally, turning to the very real business of elections he said he was certain the BJP and its allies would get a "positive vote" as they had in 1996, again in 1998 and then 1999. He suggested that the party make a special effort to enrol as party members voters between the ages of 18 and 23 years, focussing on this group which would be exercising its franchise for the first time.

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