ADVANI'S ABOUTTURN ON J&K
GOVT CONSULTING IB
From Jal Khambata
NEW
DELHI, Nov 26: Within 24 hours of stout denial, Deputy Prime Minister
Lal Krishna Advani sought to admit indirectly that the Jammu and
Kashmir Government certainly consulted the central intelligence
agency before releasing certain persons.
The admission came
from him at the closed-door meeting of the BJP MPs, chaired by Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, here Tuesday morning. He, however,
sought to stress that these were "informal" (anopcharik)
discussions and such discussions "did not mean consultation with
the Central Government."
As such in a way he was right in
asserting in Parliament on Monday that the State Government had held
no talks with the Centre with regard to releasing of terrorists and
other decisions, Advani said while pointing out that anyone saying
that the Centre's consent was obtained was totally wrong.
He
was quoted by party spokesman Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra stressing
that informal discussions that the government holds with the
intelligence agencies should not be made public as the Congress had
tried to do quoting the chief minister to score points.
Advani
said the intelligence agencies had, in fact, alerted the Centre about
the Mufti Government's move to set free errorits and as such the
Union Home Secretary had shot off a letter to the state government
not to take any steps in haste. He said some persons were released
despite the intelligence agency suggesting not to do so.
He
said he had also publicly suggested that a screening committee be set
up by the J&K Government to review the cases and release only
those against whom no serious charges were levelled.
Pointing
out that the Centre is ever ready to help the state government in
stopping the cross-border terrorism, Advani said it did not mean the
Centre want to interfere in the state administration in any way but
it would certainly like the Chief Minister to take care (savdhani
barte).
Prof. Malhotra, who briefed the Media after the BJP
Parliamentary Party meeting, said MPs pointed out at the meeting that
a fear psychosis has gripped the security personnel from the
declaration of Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed that his government
would institute probe into all human right violations in the
past.
Frightened that any steps they take against the
terrorists may in future be dubbed as human right violations, the
security agencies are not able to fight back terrorists effectively,
Prof. Malhotra said.
He also took offence to Congress
President Sonia Gandhi challenging the Centre with regard to release
of some persons detained in Jammu and Kashmir. He claimed Sonia
thrice challenged the Centre with words like "how dare" and
said it only showed how "immature" she was in making such
statements. END