Advani's Bharat Suraksha Yatra takes off from Rajkot

Rajkot, Gujarat, Apr 6: BJP leader L K Advani today started his 6000-km-long Bharat Suraksha Yatra, with a call to the nation to shun the ''political forces which compromised with terrorist and divisive forces for the sake of vote-bank politics.'' Flanked by three BJP Chief Ministers -- Narendra Modi, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Mr Advani asserted that the BJP's fight was not merely against terrorism but was to draw the attention of the people to various problems confronting the nation ranging from terrorism and secessionism as well as issues concerning the common man and farmers.

Starting his yatra from this commercial town of Gujarat after taking the blessings of Lord Krishna at Dwarka and a visit to the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi on the auspicious Ram Navami day, he noted ''it was important for the nation to learn from its past history, which was plagued by host of invasions of the Somnath Temple by the forces led by invader Mahmud Ghazni a thousand years ago.'' ''Our history is replete with instances of foreign invasions, be it Arabs, Turks, Mughals, Portugese or the British resulting in the nation undergoing centuries of foreign governance,'' he remarked.

Calling on the various security 'think-tanks' to make a short and long-term assessments of the ''dangers of appeasement policies, minorityism and the wrong policies pursued by the present UPA Government, Mr Advani claimed it was not the security only that was compromised by the wrong policies but the ''interests of the common man and poor farmers were put in jeopardy for the sake of securing votes for one particular family.'' The Bharat Suraksha Yatra is simultaneously being undertaken by Mr Advani from Rajkot and BJP President Rajnath Singh from Puri, traversing 10 major states of the country except the states going to polls and the North-Eastern states.

UNI