Rajnath Singh’s and Venkaih Naidu’s visit earmark National leaders campaign in Kerala

CPM-Madani ties harmful for nation: BJP

PNS | Kochi

BJP
president Rajnath Singh has said that the brazen votebank politics
pursued by the Left parties, particularly the CPI(M), has been pushing
the country towards greater security and social risks while vitiating
the social harmony of Kerala.

He said by defending Abdul
Nasser Madani, with whose party PDP, the CPI(M) had struck an electoral
alliance, the Marxists were trying to “defend the invincible” as well
as putting yet “another question mark in its (already) dubious secular
credentials”. Rajnath Singh was talking to newspersons at the Kochi
airport at Nedumbassery as he reached the State for campaigning for the
BJP candidates.

Rajnath Singh asked the CPI(M) and the ruling
LDF it led to explain their relations with Madani’s PDP. He said this
kind of political associations would spell danger for the State as well
as the nation.

While the Congress-led UPA Government had been
ignoring and dishonoring the Judicial system by not executing the death
sentence on Mohammed Afzal, convicted in the Parliament attack case,the
Left parties were joining hands with people like Madani, the prime
accused in the case relating to the serial bombings in Coimbatore,
Rajnath said.

He said, “In its desperation to garner Muslim
votes, the CPI(M) is not only working in tandem with anti-national
parties like the PDP but also persuading other communal outfits like
Jamaat-e-Islami in Kerala and West Bengal.”

He asked the UPA
Government at the Centre to come out with a statement on the “growing
network of terrorist organisations” in Kerala and to inform the people
about the organisations and persons involved in it.

On the
issue of reservation, Singh said his party firmly believed that any
attempt to introduce religion-based reservation would only destabilise
the country and also push it towards a “partition-like situation”. He
said no Government had the right to divide people on religious lines as
the benefits should be shared by all irrespective of their faith or
religion.

Asked whether the formation of a Third Front by the
Left parties and others would upset the calculations of the BJP, Singh
said that the Third Front “was not a force but a farce”.

Responding
to questions on the controversial speech by young leader Varun Gandhi
in Pilibhit and the subsequent events, Rajnath said that his alleged
vitriolic speech was neither an opportunity nor an embarrassment for
the BJP. Varun was being politically harassed, he said.

Singh
stressed that political harassment was going on against Varun and “we
are against that.” If Varun had breached the code of conduct of the
Election Commission, action should be taken against him on those
provisions and not charged for attempt to murder and charged under the
National Security Act, he said.

Throwing his weight behind
Varun, Singh said he had denied delivering a hate speech and reiterated
that videos being shown on the television channels were doctored. He
said inquiry was progressing on the issue and till the investigations
were over and the forensic reports on the CDs came out, Varun could not
be harassed and “we condemn it”.

At the same time, BJP
vice-president Venkiah Naidu, who reached Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday
for electioneering for party candidates in the State, alleged that the
actions being taken against Varun Gandhi were part of appeasement of
certain communities.

Naidu questioned the logic of taking
stringent actions for unproved guilt against Varun while the CPI(M) was
forging alliance with people like Abdul Nasser Madani. “If NSA is being
used against Varun why don’t they use POTA against Madani?” he asked.
He ridiculed the CPI(M) claim that it had entered into an alliance with
the PDP because Madani was not a changed man.

The visits by
Rajnath Singh and Naidu to Kerala on Tuesday marked the start of the
electioneering by BJP national leaders in the State. Apart from Rajnath
and Naidu, LK Advani, Narendra Modi and BS Yediyurappa also would do
electioneering in Kerala for party candidates.

Advani, who
would arrive at the Kozhikode airport on the morning of April 3, would
speak at campaign conferences in Kuttippuram (Ponnani constituency),
Kochi (Ernakulam constituency) and Thiruvananthapuram.





BJP calls for joint war on terror

PNS | Kochi

BJP
president Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday that joint international
efforts were needed to end terror and Talibanisation under UN
supervision. He said countries like India, Pakistan and US should
participate in such a war on terror in South Asia.

Talking to
newsmen on his arrival at the Kochi airport at Nedumbassery, the BJP
chief said that Monday’s terror attack on the police training camp at
Lahore had proved that uncontrolled terror acts were still on in
Pakistan.

Keeping in mind the growing terror menace and
Talibanisation of Pakistan and its consequences in South Asia, the
international community should restructure and rework its strategies of
war on terror, Rajnath said.

He said that his party was
convinced that any war on terror and Taliban could succeed only if it
was fought jointly by the US and other prominent players in the South
Asian region under UN supervision.

Singh said it was a matter
of grave concern that the sphere of influence of terrorists in
Pakistan, which was earlier confined to remote areas of the
North-Western Frontier Province and Swat Valley, had now spread to
eastern areas closer to the borders.

Despite growing sentiment
against terrorism the world over and the billions of dollars being
spent on the war against terror, the government in Pakistan was not
able to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure on its soil, he alleged.

Singh urged the Central Government to mount diplomatic pressure
on Pakistan and take the international community into confidence
against the growing menace of terrorism in the region.

Criticising
the Congress-led UPA regime, Singh said ever since the Government came
to power, the country had witnessed many terrorist activities.

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