Pre-1953 status to JK will not be acceptable: BJP

New Delhi, Aug 11: The BJP today warned the UPA Government against any suggestion to agree to the pre-1953 status for Jammu and Kashmir with a view to resolving the Kashmir issue with Pakistan.

The party expressed surprise over a report in Pakistani daily 'The Nation' which said the Pakistan Government had received a non-paper (unofficial paper) from India in which a suggestion has been made to accord the 1953 status to Kashmir.

''It is totally unacceptable to the BJP,'' party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

He said the paper had also said had there been no Mumbai blasts and the Indian diplomat Deepak Kaul issue, there would have been progress over the proposal by now.

''We would like the government to take the nation and Parliament into confidence and it should not make any move on the sly over the Kashmir issue,'' he said.

Mr Malhotra recalled that Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee had sacrificed his life and more than 25,000 people courted arrest against the 1953 dispensation, which had provisions for a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir. How could there be two constitutions, two Supreme Courts, he asked.

The BJP demanded the Government to either contradict the report or clarify its stand on the matter, he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP also asked the government to take necessary steps to strengthen the security in the country in view of the possible terrorists strikes in next few days as alerted by the US.

He recalled that similar alerts were passed on to India by the US and other countries at the time of blasts in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai but the government turned a blind eye towards them.

UNI

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