BJP’s massive demonstration on Parliament Street

BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY Resolution on Internal Security
Adopted at a massive demonstration
on Parliament Street

The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly condemns the UPA government’s destructive drift, total directionlessness and votebank-dictated policy of compromise in the nation’s fight against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Nothing exemplifies this more strikingly than the government’s continuing silence on, and covert support to, a well-orchestrated campaign to secure clemency for Mohammad Afzal Guru, who has been awarded death sentence by the highest court of the land. The Supreme Court of India found him guilty of murder, criminal conspiracy and waging war against the State for his role in the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament.

This attack on Parliament was a kind of a high watermark in a prolonged proxy war conducted through cross-border terrorism, waged against India by Pakistan. It was not only a criminal attack on the Temple of Indian Democracy and a symbol of India’s sovereignty, but it laid bare an evil conspiracy to annihilate MPs and leaders of the government, indeed the entire Indian political establishment cutting across party lines. No other country in the world has witnessed a terrorist act as diabolical as this. No other country would treat the convicted as tools of vote garnering.

Had the five attackers, all of whom were Pakistani nationals, succeeded in their action, the consequences would have been horrendous. The plot failed only because of the alertness and extraordinary bravery of our security forces. While protecting our Parliament and saving our parliamentarians, twelve security personnel laid down their own lives.

All those who helped the terrorists and participated in the conspiracy are enemies of the nation. They deserve not mercy, but the highest punishment under law. The death sentence awarded to Mohammad Afzal was the culmination of a due process of law.

It is shocking that a concerted ‘Save Afzal’ campaign has now been launched by those who are known for their sympathies to the Congress and the communist parties. Some political leaders in Jammu & Kashmir, and leaders of some constituent parties of the UPA, have also joined this cacophonous chorus. A communal twist is then sought to be given to the death sentence awarded to the proven wrong doers. Some defenders of Afzal, who routinely defame not only the BJP but also India on every available international forum, have gone to the extent of saying that the Indian army in J&K is “an occupation force”.

It is ironic that the leaders and MPs of many of the parties that are overtly or covertly supporting clemency for Afzal were also targets of the December 13 attack. But such is the attraction of vote-bank politics that they are willing to overlook both aspects of December 13: that it was a warlike attack on our nation and that it was also an attack on their own lives. It is hard to imagine so mindless a manifestation of pseudo-secularism and vote bank politics.

These martyrs defended Indian Parliament (and all those inside it) by sacrificing their lives. Now, our vote bank politicians and their supporters are defending the conspirators in this attack by sacrificing all considerations of national security.

The silence of both Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress president Smt. Sonia Gandhi lends credence to apprehensions that the ‘Save Afzal’ campaign has their support. These are further strengthened by the UPA government’s delay in taking a decision on the mercy petition, filed on behalf of Afzal, which was submitted to Mahamahim Rashtrapatiji and who, in turn, has passed it on to the government for its recommendation.

It may be pointed that a similar clemency petition on behalf of the terrorist, who was convicted of the murder of General Vaidya, was dismissed within 15 hours.

India can never be safe in the hands of such persons who are afraid of taking a firm and principled stand against enemies of the nation. India cannot be safe in the hands of such self-serving politicians who, by defending Afzal (overtly or covertly), are nullifying the supreme sacrifice made by over a dozen security personnel on December 13.

The Bharatiya Janata Party demands that the Prime Minister state clearly where he stands on this issue, without any further delay and let the country know whether his government endorses or rejects the clemency petition by prove perpetrators of crime against our Parliament

* * *

Since it assumed office in May 2004, the UPA government has behaved as if its mandate is to disarm India of all the available legislative and administrative instruments to fight terrorism. Even today it boastfully claims that its very first act was to repeal POTA. In Kerala, both the Congress and the communist parties together passed a unanimous resolution in the state assembly seeking the release of Abdul Nazir Madani, the main accused in the terrorist bomb blasts in Coimbatore in February 1998. Fifty-eight persons were killed in this act. Significantly, the main target of the terrorist attack was Shri L.K. Advani, who had gone to Coimbatore on that day to address an election rally.

About ISI’s involvement in the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai’s local trains on July 11, 2006, senior ministers and functionaries in the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress-led government in Maharashtra have been making conflicting and contradictory statements. This has reduced India’s credibility in international circles. It has also enabled Pakistan to cover up its own sponsorship of cross-border terrorism.

Every terrorist attack in the past nearly three years shows that Pakistan has not lived up to its commitment, made in the historic Vajpayee-Musharraf joint statement in Islamabad in January 2004, that it would not allow Pak or Pak-controlled territory to be used for terrorist activities aimed against India.

Yet, the UPA government has chosen to set up a joint mechanism between India and Pakistan to fight terror!

The BJP reiterates its resolve to step up its mass awareness and mobilization campaign against the votebank politics of the Congress and its allies and make the people alive to the fact that this kind of politics has gravely endangered India’s national security, unity and integrity.

Responses