22 July 2003
ADVANI:
KASHMIR NORMALCY BIG BLOW TO MILITANCY
From Jal
Khambata
NEW DELHI: Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna
Advani on Tuesday gave a pat to the Mufti Mohd Sayeed Government for
equally determined as the Centre in the fight against terrorism and
claimed there was "complete cooperation" between the Centre
and the State Government on the issues of security and
development.
Responding to an impromptu 80-minute debate on
the terrorist attack on the Vaisho Devi pilgrims Monday night
drowning the Question Hour, Advani also refused to share his own
BJP's chief whip Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra's charge that the Mufti
Government's "healing touch" and release of the militants
was promoting militancy. No use fighting on words like "healing
touch, ityadi, ityadi (etc.,etc)," he remarked.
The House
later adopted a motion by Speaker Manohar Joshi that strongly
deplored the barbaric attacks by the militants to vititiate the
climate of peace. Advani assured the House that there shall be no
complacency on the part of the Centre in dealing with the militants.
Debate in Parliament always impacts the state and hence let a message
go that "we are all united in our fight against terrorism,"
he said.
Members, cutting across the party lines, also
affirmed that nobody in the country wants terrorism and as such all
parties are with the government in giving the death blow to terrorism
troubling Kashmir for the past so many years. There was, however,
acrimony when BJP's Malhotra tried to ridicule the Congress, pointing
out that it was the major partner in the state government that should
have prevented the murderous attack on the pilgrims.
Normalcy
is fast returning in Jammu and Kashmir as seen from the heavy rush of
tourists and that needs to be publicised to the hilt as it would help
the state, Advani said while pointing out that three militant attacks
in the past 24 hours, including the grenade attack on the pilgrims
that killed six and wounded 47, were attempts to negate the return of
normalcy. He described all three attacks as the "continuing
battle" and part of the "proxy war" from across the
borders.
The two other incidents referred by Advani related to
the killing of a deputy Superintendent of Police while travelling
from Rajouri to his work place at Shahdra Sheikh Monday evening and
Tuesday morning attack by two Fidayeens on the military camp in
Akhnoor resulting in death of six army personnel. Both the Fidayeens
were also killed, Advani disclosed.
While the Government has
to make security arrangements for the Amarnath Yatra for just
one-and-a-half month, the pilgrims to the Vaishno Devi shrines come
round the year and hence require much bigger level of security,
Advani said, pointing out that there have been 29 lakh pilgrims to
Vaishno Devi since January as compared to 21 lakhs between January
and July last year.
The Deputy PM also pointed out that
Monday's attack was not the first on the Vaishno Devi pilgrims. There
had been three attacks last year. None was killed but some wounded in
two cases while all five terrorists were gunned down by the forces in
the third incident, Advani said.
He said the visit of the
President, the Prime Minister, 15 Parliamentary committees,
Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi and her Congress Chief Ministers to
Jammu and Kashmir were all "positive factors" to show the
return of normalcy in the state.
"Establishment of
democracy" in Jammu and Kashmir through an impartial Assembly
elections last year was the major turning point in the history of
Jammu and Kashmir that has helped in the fast restoration of
normalcy, Advani affirmed.
Jammu and Kashmir National
Conference President Omar Abdullah, however, asserted that this was
not for the first time that the normalcy appeared to be returning to
the state as he said similar situation was witnessed after the PM's
Lahore trip in 1999 that saw a similar rush of tourists. But that
brought complacency and the result was the Kargil conflict.
Omar
dubbed the present situation of normalcy hailed by so many MPs who
had opportunity to visit his state as nothing but "a false sense
of security" as he said the militants were just lying low and
have not gone away. He also wanted the House to show to the world
that all are one in fighting terrorism instead of blaming each other
as the Congress and the BJP members did.
Pointing out that the
State Government and the Centre were equally responsible for the
security in the state, Omar said the Chief Minister should take up
any security lapse at the Unified Command created in the state for
coordination between the military, central para-military forces and
the state police. "Think of the next option of the Unified
Headquarters if the coordination is lacking," he said and urged
the Centre to implement a report prepared by a special secretary,
Home, for the coordination between the Centre and the state.
The
Opposition held a meeting at the place of CPI(M) leader Somnath
Chatterjee and decided to jointly raise the issue of the attack on
the Vaishno Devi right at the start of the House. As such they held
back the other issue of the CBI withdrawing the charge of criminal
conspiracy in the Babri Mosque demolition case against Advani and
seven others until this was through.
And, so the Opposition
members were back in the well immediately after the debate and a
minute's silence to mourn the deaths, forcing an ultimate adjournment
of the House on the issue for the second consecutive day.
While
Priya Ranjan Das Munshi (Cong) wanted Advani to spell out the
security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir and explain why the Centre
was not tackling the militants effectively, BJP's Prof. Malhotra
wanted the State Government to be "careful" in releasing
the militants as that sends wrong signals. Malhotra wanted the
Congress not to target the Centre or the military fighting the
militants but condemn Pakistan and its "aka"
America.
Others who spoke included Samajwadi Party leader
Mulayam Singh Yadav, CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee, TDP's Yerran
Naidu, BJP's Prakash Mani Tripathi, Shiv Sena leader Chandrakant
Khere, Bahujan Samaj Party's Rashid Alvi, Congress' Pawan Bansal and
Muslim League's G M Banatwala.
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