BJP blasts govt for not taking up terrorism

NEW DELHI: The ���T��� word is back to haunt the Indo-Pak peace talks. The BJP on Monday slammed the UPA government for giving cross-border terrorism a go-by in its talks with Pakistan, and saw a disconnect between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on the re-drawing of boundaries.

���We���re dismayed with the Manmohan Singh government over the conspicuous silence maintained by it on cross-border terrorism in the discussions with Pakistan,��� BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said here while reacting to Mukherjee���s statements in Islamabad on Sunday during the course of his talks with top political leaders in Pakistan.

The saffron outfit saw it as part of a deliberate attempt by the Congress-led alliance to gloss over the mayhem created in the country by jehadi terror, and linked it with the government���s appeasement politics. ���In the aftermath of the violent attacks on the migrants from Bihar, West Bengal and other parts of the country, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Union minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaisawal blamed it all on Ulfa forging links with Pakistan���s ISI.

Did Mr Mukherjee convey our concerns to the Pakistani authorities ? And what about US intelligence chief John Negroponte���s statement describing Pakistan as the hub of Islamic fundamentalism? Did it figure in the Union minister���s talks with Islamabad,��� Mr Prasad wondered.

Normalcy with Pakistan, the BJP spokesman argued, is in the interest of both the countries, but without compromising on terrorism and Pakistan not permitting its soil to be used for jehadi purposes. These, he added, are the biggest CBMs around which other CBMs have to revolve around.

Under the UPA rule, Mr Prasad maintained, terrorism had become a politically-incorrect word, and the government���s reflexes on the issue were being driven by vote bank politics. ���The compulsions of UP politics has chased the UPA till Islamabad,��� he said. The senior BJP leader asked the UPA government to take the various political parties into confidence on the outcome of the just-concluded talks with Pakistan.