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 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 in Chandigarh.
Shri 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 in Chandigarh to inaugurate the party'sChandigarh 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 Singh 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 Behari Vajpayee had discontinued peace talks when Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf had described the Kashmir terrorists 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'smandate on the Indo-Pak peace talks. Criticising the UPA government'sdecision 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 nationalists by jumbling the date of the centenary celebrations of the National Song, Vande Mataram, Rajnath Singh 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'scentenary was not known.? The BJP chief said 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, Shri Singh said 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 Singh Sidhu, welcomed the BJP President. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) general secretary Captain Kanwaljit Singh was also present and later addressed the gathering.
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