Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 7, 2008
Introduction: Says National Backlash Building
Up Against Govt On Amarnath, Terror Issues
Turning the heat on the Manmohan Singh government
over its "slack" approach to internal security, the BJP on Wednesday
said a "nationalist" backlash was building up against the UPA for
its poor handling of issues like the Amarnath land transfer case and the ban
on SIMI.
The two cases highlighted the government's
inability to stand up to separatists while also not being able to act firmly
against terror outfits, the BJP said. "The support extended by Lalu Prasad
and Mulayam Singh to the ban on SIMI being lifted (by the tribunal) has led
to the question being asked whether India is safe under the UPA," BJP
general secretary Arun Jaitley said. The BJP sought to pin down the government
by arguing that the Amarnath controversy showed how far the Congress could
go in appeasing separatists in the Kashmir Valley. "The upsurge in Jammu
is a reaction and a retaliation for being treated like a colony. The government
will have to address the grievances of the agitationists which centre round
the cancellation of land for pilgrims in the face of protests by separatists,"
Jaitley said. With the BJP looking to regain the ground it had lost to the
Congress in the last elections in Jammu, the saffron party zeroed in on the
UPA lead player's unenviable situation of being caught between a rock and
a hard place.
By taking up the SIMI ban along with the Amarnath
issue, the BJP suggested that bowing before Kashmir separatists and failure
to present a decent case on SIMI both reflected the Congress's urge to cater
to minority votebanks. Demanding home minister Shivraj Patil's resignation,
the BJP accused the government of failing to present the relevant material
on SIMI before the tribunal. It said despite SIMI's open advocacy of radical
fundamentalism which rejected democracy and a complete intolerance of other
faiths and the complicity of its members in terrorist cases, the government
had made a hash of the case. SIMI's ideological links with Taliban and Al
Qaida and its collaboration with groups like HuJI and Lashkar were well known
and the government's casual approach would only encourage the extremist organisation.
The home ministry has failed to take note of the blasts in Malegaon, the Mumbai
train attacks, the Hyderabad bombings and recent blasts at Jaipur, Bangalore
and Ahmedabad, the BJP said.
