Taking a strong exception to the statement of Home Minister Rajnath Singh on ‘Hindu terror’, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior Congress Leader Ghulam Nabi Azad Saturday said it is an ‘unsuccessful and cheap attempt’ on the part of BJP Government to divert attention of the nation from its failures to effectively deal with the menace of cross-border terrorism.Hitting out at the Home Minister for blaming the Congress to weaken the country’s stand against terrorism, Azad asserted that, India’s fight against terror got weakened long back when three dreaded terrorist were escorted to Kandahar by the former External Affairs Minister in the NDA-1 Government, and “in a meek surrender handed over to the enemies of the country.”
Azad reminded the Home Minister that it was the NDA Government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which decided to release three terrorists in 1999 for seeking release of the passengers on board the hijacked Air India flight.Complimenting Dr Farooq Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of J&K for his stout refusal to agree to the release of the terrorists, Azad regretted that NDA Government forced him into submission, who had even offered to resign at that point of time.“I spoke to Dr Farooq Abdullah today in the morning to seek a confirmation about the facts that have come in the public domain recently”, remarked AzadAzad also referred to a recently released book of A. S. Dulat, former Director of R.A.W. wherein a graphic account of the whole episode is given.“How can the BJP give lectures to us?” Azad wondered. “You have meekly surrendered to the demands of the enemies of the country, your Minister escorted the three dreaded terrorists to a third country and handed them over to the enemies.”He asserted that Congress has lost a sitting Prime Minister to the bullets of the terrorists; one ex-Prime Minister, one Chief Minister, one former Union Minister and scores of leaders and workers have sacrificed their lives due to terrorist violence.Commenting on the allegation of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, blaming congress for coining the term ‘Hindu Terror’, Azad clarified that the then Home Minister wanted to educate the party cadres about terrorism being bereft of any colour or religion.
Azad said that the then Home Minister of the UPA Govt, in the wake of increased a terrorist violence in the country, had tried to bring home the point that certain interested political parties are attributing it to a particular religion and using phrases like “Islamic terrorism”, “Muslim Terrorism”, which is not correct as during the course of investigations in Mecca Masjid blast, Malegaon blast and other blasts, National Investigation Agency (NIA) had come to the conclusion that there were members of other religions who were involved in those blasts.“To explain that terror has no religion or colour, the then Home Minister had simply asked “Would you call it Hindu terror”? and advised the party workers to be cautious about the attempts of some political parties to divide the country “Terrorism is terrorism and it has no religion”, is the message which the then Home Minister wanted to convey, said Azad.
He also accused the BJP of picking up these remarks out of context to malign and defame the Congress Party and mislead the nation for cheap political gains
To substantiate his point, Azad asked, who killed Indira Gandhi, who killed Rajiv Gandhi, who killed V.C. Shukla ?, adding that Congress Party believes that terrorism has no religion as members of any religious belief can indulge in terrorist acts and therefore, the latest attempt by the BJP Govt is to divide the country and polarize the society.Azad said that the polarization in the country on religious lines has aggravated ever since the BJP has come to power in May 2014.“It is deliberate attempt by the Home Minister to divide the country, to deflect the attention of the nation, to rake up the debate of Hindu vs Muslim, to use the forum of Parliament to malign and defame the Congress party, and above all once again instigate the narrative of polarization”, alleged Azad.Azad said that the BJP Govt wants to cover up its failures to deal with the menace of terrorism by crafting a narrative of “Hindu vs Muslim terror”.
Lashing out on the BJP Government, Azad said that, Home minister has tried to divert the attention of the Nation and put a lid on its failure to fight terrorism effectively.He reminded that the BJP and the Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha election campaign accused the UPA Government of being ‘soft’ on terror and Pakistan and Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modi and the BJP leadership promised a ‘strong-kneed’ approach to deal with Pakistan and terror.However, after coming to power and during the 14 months of the BJP Govt., there has been an unprecedented spurt in ceasefire violations and unprovoked firing on the borders by Pakistan, due to which people residing in those areas have been subjected to untold hardships without any pause.
Azad said that more than 800 ceasefire violations have taken place in J&K in the past more than one year, leading to scores of causalities, both of security personnel as well as the civilians.
Drawing attention towards the spurt in terrorist violations, Azad said that four ghastly terror attacks have taken place in the past eight months in the State of Jammu & Kashmir in which a number of security jawans, police personnel and civilians have lost their lives. “This Government was not in a hurry to discuss the terror attacks when our jawans and civilians were killed in Arnia, Uri, Raj Bagh and Samba”, asked Azad adding the entire opposition used to shout from rooftops to urge the Govt to discuss heightened terrorist activities in J&K in the House and this GOvt was never in a hurry to respond to the demands of the Opposition.
Accusing the BJP Govt of trying to score political brownie points and to invent a pretext for breaking the Parliament Logjam by proposing a discussion on Gurdaspur terror attack, Azad said that the same BJP Govt was never so enthusiastic to answer in Parliament when four ghastly terror attacks took place in J&K during the past seven months.Azad said the only aim of the BJP Govt is to use the garb of discussing Gurdaspur terrorist attack to break the Parliament logjam by subterfuge.“As regards discussion and debate in Parliament, we want a comprehensive debate on cross border terrorism, however, the discussion can take place only when the House is in order”, said Azad.He further said that Prime Minster Sh Narendra Modi has been in touch with the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief since the taking of oath and he, therefore, needs to apprise the Parliament and the nation about his ongoing talks and dialogue with Pakistan Prime Minister, the latest round of which took place in Ufa in Russia.
Azad said that the nation would like to know why, in spite of the so much of bonhomie and many rounds of talks, the BJP Govt and the Prime Minister have failed to take a concrete assurance from Pakistan as far as bringing an end to cross border terrorism is concerned.Questioning the NDA Govt’s policy towards Pakistan, Azad asserted that inspite of Prime Minister Narendra Modi having a number of meetings with the Pakistan Prime Minister, including the last meeting in UFA in Russia, the belligerence of Pakistan towards India has increased manifold.“The spirit of UFA was lost even before the Prime Minister landed on the soil of his country, and today while I am holding this press briefing, ceasefire violations at two places in J&K are taking place”, said Azad adding that in the past five days six ceasefire violations and one terror attack have taken place.Azad said that the policy of NDA govt towards Pakistan and terror has been motivated by political considerations and not the long term interests of the country.