Did PM jettison national interest on Kashmir ?

New Delhi, Dec 29 (UNI) Has Prime Minister Manmohan Singh jettisoned India's position that Pakistan was sponsoring terror in India and adopted Pakistani position at Havana that it too was a victim of terror in his eagerness to enter history books? The answer is yes, if BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley is to be believed.

Giving his assessment of the performance of the UPA government in 2006, Mr Jaitley felt that somebody obviously convinced Dr Singh that his name would be written in golden letters if he were to take a liberal approach with Pakistan notwithstanding the national sentiments in the aftermath of bombings in Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai.

After this, Dr Singh not only abandoned India's position that Kashmir's portion under Pakistan control was Indian territory but by talking about joint control in Indian Kashmir giving a foothold for Pakistan President General Musharraf, he succumbed to Pakistan's trap of diverting terror from the international focus and bring Kashmir under the arc lamps. ''He wants to change geography to get into books of history not knowing that history can be written in black letters too and not just in golden letters,'' Mr Jaitley remarked.

He said the way a weak Congress-led UPA government pursued third front agenda of pandering the religion and caste-based vote bank politics it showed that the Congress had pursued style and substance that was alien to the party known for a strong leadership pedalling centerist agenda and rallying the people around the dynasty. ''It is the Left parties, Lalu Prasad or Mulayam Singh who sets the agenda and a weak Congress leadership pursues it without making inroads into either caste or religion-based polity while antagonising one section of society.'' Prime Minister's comments on 'Muslims first' or Sachar Committee on Muslim's status or delaying the death for Parliament attack convict Afzal for elections should all be taken in this background, he said.

Even while dealing with Indo-US Nuclear deal, the Prime Minister as an economist was overawed by the lure of nuclear power even at the cost of compromise on foreign policy and nuclear preparedness.

Asked about the impact of all these actions for the BJP, Mr Jaitley said it was very good for his party to occupy non-Jehadi space and pursue its nationalistic ideological, position on one event after other be it the nuclear issue, Kashmir, IMDT, Afzal hanging or Vande Mataram. ''There is no competition for BJP in this space,'' he remarked.

About the achievement of 9.5 per cent growth rate, Mr Jaitley said it was basically entrepreneur-driven and could not be attributed to any single policy of the government. There were no efforts to improve the infrastructure be it power, ports or roads.

However, the successive governments since 1991-2004 consistently, pursuing the policy and reforms, did have a positive impact on the growth, he conceded.

The same was true for much touted turnaround of loss making Indian Railways. When the economy was growing around eight per cent rate continuously for four successive years, the goods traffic was bound to increase and Railway Minister was trying to hog the limelight for himself without any personal contribution from his side, he said.

UNI MCN/KAS PK HS/ht1935