End peace process with Islamabad, Rajnath to Centre

Pioneer News Service | Chandigarh

A day after the Mumbai Police revelation that Pak-based terror outfits and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were behind the serial train blasts on July 11 in Mumbai, the BJP on Sunday asked the Centre to break off peace process with Pakistan and reconsider continuation of diplomatic relations.

 “The Pakistan High Commissioner should be immediately summoned and categorically told that India will reconsider continuation of diplomatic relations with Pakistan,” BJP president Rajnath Singh told a press conference here.

Singh said it was high time the Centre launched a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan and “its terror machine, the Inter-Services Intelligence.”

The BJP president who was here to inaugurate the party’s Chandigarh unit office, cautioned the Centre against continuing talks with Pakistan, and said if the UPA Government failed to snap ties with Pakistan, the BJP would ‘gherao’ Parliament to oppose the peace talks. “We will not allow India-Pakistan talks to continue in the present circumstances,” he said.

Rajnath alleged that by continuing parleys with Pakistan – the architect of terror in India – the UPA Government was compromising on national security. He recalled how former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had discontinued peace talks when Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf had described the Kashmir militants as patriots fighting for freedom. The talks had resumed in January 2004 only after Musharraf assured, at a UN Session, he would neutralise the terror network in his country.

The BJP leader accused the Centre of not taking the Opposition and Parliament into confidence on any issue related to national security, and questioned as to why the UPA was not seeking Parliament’s mandate on the Indo-Pak peace talks. Criticising the UPA Government’s decision to scrap POTA and TADA, he said the Pak terrorists who got punishment were only tried under the two anti-terror Acts.

Accusing the Centre of hurting nationalist by jumbling the date of the centenary celebrations of the National Song, Vande Mataram, Rajnath asked, “Can (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi tell the nation what the exact date is and why she hates to sing the National Song?”

A day after the 100 years of the National Song, September 7, Rajnath Singh said, “The Centre actually claimed in a statement that the exact date of Vande Mataram‘s centenary was not known.” The BJP chief said that the BJP would amend the Constitution to insert the term National Song, along with the National Anthem and the National Flag once it returns to power.

“Those who do not respect the National Song have no right to live in India,” the BJP president said, in an oblique reference to Sonia Gandhi.

In a frank assessment, Rajnath said that his party needed at least 10 years to develop the country and make it a world leader. “I cannot promise it in five years, but we will definitely make a difference in two consecutive terms,” he said.

Earlier, he inaugurated the newly-built office complex of the Chandigarh BJP. Former BJP MP from Chandigarh Satpal Jain and BJP MP from Amritsar Navjot Sidhu, welcomed the BJP president. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) general secretary Captain Kanwaljit Singh was also present and later addressed the gathering