The Hindu : Pak. attitude hurting peace process: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 08, 2003

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Pak. attitude hurting peace process: BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD Sept. 7. The BJP national general secretary and spokesman, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, does not feel that the current peace process with Pakistan initiated by the Union Government would yield any tangible result.

Asked about the shift in the Government stand after it repeatedly ruled out talks with Pakistan till it shunned terrorism, Mr. Naqvi said there was nothing wrong in holding talks but Pakistan's attitude of holding a "flower of friendship" in one hand and the "gun of terrorism" in the other was detrimental to any positive outcome.

Describing Pakistan as the "factory of terrorism", he claimed that terrorism was "breathing its last" in India and the latest bout of terrorist attacks in various parts of the country was out of "despair" of various Pakistan-based terrorist groups. The Al-Qaeda, Jaish-e-Mohammad and other terrorist groups had thought India would be a safe land for carrying out their activities, but it had turned out to be "their graveyard".

On Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Naqvi said he did not see a bright future for the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government and said the composition of his Ministry, in which some people with criminal background had been given berth, did not augur well for the Samajwadi Party leader.

Blaming the former Chief Minister, Mayawati, for the collapse of the BSP-BJP coalition Government in U.P. paving the way for Mr. Yadav assuming power, he said that Ms. Mayawati had "misread and miscalculated" the present political situation and took the "hurried wrong decision" to snap ties with the BJP.

Mr. Naqvi claimed that the BJP was not the loser. Its joining hands with the BSP was "an experiment" and the party had "gained some points" from it. Even while claiming that the BJP would come to power in U.P. on its own in the next elections, he did not rule out the possibility of yet another tie-up with the BSP. "In the present political situation in the country, nothing can be conclusively said about alliances and partnerships."

Referring to the Congress, he described its president, Sonia Gandhi, as a "leader by accident" and accused her of acting like a film star and treating the Indian political arena as a Hollywood film. "She parrot-talks the scripts written by her script-writers in filmi style and expects replies to her every monologue as in the films even if they are totally outdated and irrelevant to the present situation,'' he said.

On Ms. Gandhi's recent statement that the NDA Government was "scared of a woman," Mr. Naqvi said that by saying this, Ms. Gandhi had once again proved that she did not understand the Indian ethos and its culture, where women were highly respected and treated with dignity. This should not be misread as fear.

Mr. Naqvi said that to become a "leader by performance," one needed to make sacrifices and have a deep understanding of the people and the country. When it was pointed out that the Nehru-Gandhi family had a long history of sacrifices, he quipped, "it already has enjoyed its fruits with interest" and there was nothing left for Ms. Gandhi.

He appealed to the Muslims in Gujarat and in the rest of the country to denounce terrorism and dispel the doubts cast on the community as a whole because of a "handful of hot-headed elements using the name of Islam as camouflage for their terrorist activities."

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