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