17 May 2002
PARLIAMENT WANT ACTION AGAINST
PAK BUT GOVT STILL NOT PREPARED
From Jal
Khambata
NEW DELHI: Both the Houses of Parliament pressed
for action against Pakistan as the only way to end terrorism
sponsored by it on the last day of the budget session on Friday but
the Government is still in the mode of considering options.
Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee preferred silence while Home Minister
Lal Krishna Advani sitting next to him in the Lok Sabha wound up the
day-long debate on the Tuesday terrorist attack on bus passengers and
army camp at Kaluchak in Jammu, pleading members not to press for the
Government's strategy as "such announcements cannot be done in
Parliament."
The clear admission of the Government still
in an indecisive frame of mind came from Advani by promising that the
Prime Minister will consult the parties before taking the "decision"
and that the Prime Minister will take the "right decision"
in consultation with the military commanders and in the background of
intelligence available. He also said the Government will explore "all
options."
While the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party MPs were
quick to claim after the session ended just at 7 PM that Advani was
clearly hinting at the possibility of a war by referring to
consultation with the military commanders, Jammu and Kashmir Chief
Minister Farooq Abdullah left dejected after spending seven long
hours in the visitors' gallery saying he does not understand what
inhibits the Government from acting despite deploying the forces for
the past four months.
Both the Houses were unanimous in giving
full free hand to the Government in doing whatever it finds fit to
put an end to the terrorism that has ruined Jammu and Kashmir and
that continues to be sponsored by the Pakistan Government.
The
resolution, moved by Speaker Manohar Joshi at the end of the debate,
vowed to "fight against the senseless act of terrorism in an
united and determined manner to end this menace." It strongly
condemned the most dastardly attack in Jammu and noted that India had
consistently tried to improve relations with Pakistan to solve
pending problems in the light of the Shimla Agreement and Lahore
declaration but all its efforts did not meet the desired
response.
TRAINING CAMPS: Advani asserted that the Indian
Government had the information about some 70 to 75 training camps of
terrorists were still functioning in Pakistan.
He said all
that Pakistan Government has done was to ask the terrorist outfits to
change their names, remove their signboards and lie low after India's
diplomatic offensive in retaliation of the December 13 attack on the
Parliament House.
However, since then the terrorist outfits
like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohd, Al Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen
continue to operate and all that they have done is to remove their
signboards and posters, Advani said, adding that the terrorists who
were earlier functioning in Afghanistan have also moved into Jammu
and Kashmir.
In his 40-minute response to nearly six hours of
debate that witnessed no clashes between the ruling and opposition
benches as it naturally happens in an attempt to score point, Advani
said the unanimity of Parliament in dealing with the terrorist menace
has made the government confident that the nation will achieve the
"vijay (victory) on the strength of the nation, on the strength
of its military and on the strength of its people."
Advani
pointed out that the government was already engaged in finishing off
the terrorists as seen from the fact that as many as 601 terrorists
had been killed in the last four months giving a ratio of security
personnel killed to the terrorists killed as 1:6 as against 1:4 in
the year 2000 and 2001.
Interrupted by Congress member Shyama
Charan Shukla (former Madhya Pradesh CM) as to why the government
acts every time only after the terrorists strike, Advani said it is
not possible to identify who are the terrorists and yet 601
terrorists were killed because of the pro-active policy purused based
on the intelligence inputs gathered.
Advani also told the
House that he had conveyed his "deep disappointment" to a
top US official who called on him a day earlier, pointing out that
America has only given an encouragement to Pakistan and emboldened
their courage to continue to promote terrorism in India. END