Advani lambasts UPA on foreign policy

Neemuch(MP), May 1 (UNI) Condemning the abduction and killing of Indian engineer K Suryanarayan by Taliban in Afghanistan, senior BJP leader L K Advani today lambasted the UPA government, saying the country was paying a heavy price due to lack of direction and coherence in the foreign policy.

Expressing his heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family, the Lok Sabha Opposition leader said this was the second instance of killing of an Indian by Taliban in less than six months. In November last year, Maniappan Raman Kutty, a driver with the Indian Border Roads Organisation engaged on an Afghanistan project, was similarly killed.

''Our country is paying a heavy price due to the UPA government's lack of direction, coherence and even a full-time minister in the vital area of foreign policy,'' he told a news conference here on the last leg of his ''Bharat Suraksha Yatra' through Madhya Pradesh before entering Rajasthan.

Stating that the most worrying part was the steady erosion of independence in India's foreign policy, Mr Advani said it was evident in the recent Indo-US nuclear agreement ''compromising India's national security''.

In this context, he said, former Foreign Minister Natwar Singh's criticism of Indo-US nuclear pact was ''significant''. However.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi responded to it with their habitual silence, he lamented.

The Afghanistan development was another instance of the UPA government's lack of comprehension of national interests in managing India's neighbourhood policy, Mr Advani pointed out.

''On the one hand, the Congress-led government seems totally disinterested in acknowledging the ideological roots and global networking of jehadi terrorism. Its kid-glove approach to jehadi terrorists' penetration to India, both from Pakistan and Bangladesh, testifies to the Congress party's vote-bank politics'', Mr Advani added.

The BJP leader said the UPA government's approach to the recent development in Nepal was not only confused, but also cavalier.''The BJP is second to none in supporting Nepali people's aspirations for democracy'', he said.

However, he said, it was shocking to see the UPA government's ''indifferent'' attitude towards the rise of Maoists in Nepal's politics. Undermining India's historically close ties with our Himalayan neighbour, the UPA government seemed to be a mere onlooker in the face of growing influence of certain major powers and regional entities in the internal affairs of Nepal, Mr Advani added.

UNI XC-SP SB HS1624