Advani flays PM's 'sleepless night' statement

Mumbai, July 11: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advanitoday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent statement that he hadspent a ''sleepless night'' seeing the plight of families of thoseIndian nationals suspected to be involved in the foiled terrorist plotin Britain, was shocking and tantamount to appeasement of terrorism.

Speaking at a meeting with survivors of last year's July 11 Mumbaitrain blasts that had left 187 people dead and 890 injured, Mr Advaniremarked, ''One has not heard of the Prime Minister having spentsleepless nights at the plight of victims of 7/11 or any otherterrorist attacks that have taken place in the last three years,'' MrAdvani said.

''The comments are unfortunate and tantamount to appeasement ofterrorism. As subsequent media disclosures have shown, at least some ofthese Indian nationals were indeed a part of terrorist activities inBritain,'' Mr Advani said.

Asserting that ''getting rid of the weak and visionless UPAgovernment was the only way to wipe out terrorism'', Mr Advani said onecannot expect the Congress and the UPA government to admit theirmistakes and abandon their dangerous ''kid-glove'' approach toterrorism inspired by ideologies that spread hatred against India.

''They will not take strong measures to stop the alarming spreadof local cells of foreign inspired terrorist organisations. This isbecause the UPA government has chosen, as a principle of survival inoffice, to communalise India's interal security policy,'' he charged.

Lashing out at the Prime Minister's decision to establish ananti-terror Joint Mechanism with Pakistan, Mr Advani accused the UPAgovernment of making a U-turn on India's approach to terrorism anddecided to consider Islamabad as a partner in fight against terrorismunder foreign pressure. ''Soon after 7/11, the Prime Minister's firstreaction was that the blasts were a handiwork of Pakistan. However,within a few weeks, he announced in Havana, after meeting Gen PervezMusharraf, that India and Pakistan would establish a joint mechanism tofight terrorism. It was shocking to see that India, in its fightagainst terror, was going to join hands with the very country that hasall along used terrorism as state policy against India,'' Mr Advanicommented.

Describing the failure of the UPA government to tackle terrorism,as 'self willed'', Mr Advani said the Centre was not only unable tocomprehend the nature of terrorist threat to India and thus evolve afirm plan of action to combat it, but it was also unwilling to do soout of consideration of vote bank politics.

''I suspect that foreign pressure is also at work,'' he added.

The former deputy prime minister also vehemently criticised theUPA government for failing to get to the bottom of any of the majorterrorist attacks -- Ayodhya, Samjhauta Express, Sankat Mochan templein Varanasi, IISC in Bangalore, Sarojini Nagar in Delhi -- in the lastthree years. It had not even cracked those cases where terrorists havetargetted religious places of Muslims like Malegaon, Jama Masjid inDelhi and Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, he alleged.

Mr Advani said on July 12 last year, Home Minister Shivraj Patil,after a visit to the blasts site in Mumbai, had said that hisgovernment had enough evidence of the perpetrators of the blasts andwould take stern action to bring them to book and share the detailswith the people at the appropriate time.

''Today, I want to ask Mr Patil and the Prime Minister what actionthey had taken against the guilty and what information they had sharedwith the nation,'' Mr Advani said.

Earlier, Mr Advani visited the home of young Chirag Chavan, a charteredaccountancy student who is now paralysed from waist, in Kandivali.''Chirag has not given up hope and is preparing for his examinationsitting on an electronic chair provided to him,'' he said.

He lauded the efforts of former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya for doing aregular follow-up on the compensation, announced to the victims andsurvivors by the government, whether it has reached them or not.

Mr Advani also visited Bhayendar railway station and offeredfloral tributes to the people, who perished in the serial train blasts.

During a meeting with Mr Advani, several survivors gave vent to their anger against bureaucratic delays and humiliation.

One Rajesh Jha said his life came to a crumbling halt last yeareven before he embarked on a journey to achieve professionalexcellence.

''Left side of my body is paralysed. My spinal cord is almostbroken and I have to spent Rs 8,000 every month towards my medicaltreatment. The compensation provided by the government and railways wasinadequate and received after much delay,'' he said.

Another victim Mahendra Pitle, who has an artificial limb, said he used to use his hand for clay modelling and stone carving.

''After the blasts, the value of my hand is Rs 2.40 lakh. Ireceived Rs 40,000 in cash and was told that I will be given a fixeddeposit of Rs two lakh which will be given to me after three years. Iwant the money now. To fix a prosthetic hand, I need Rs seven lakh,''he said.

Sunita Jaiswal, whose husband was killed in the blasts, said she was in desparate need of a teaching job.

''My second son who was born with a heart ailment needs medicaltreatment. He is one-and-half-years-old and has turned completely bluedue to two surgeries performed on him. Two more have to be done. Whenmy husband was alive, he was there to take care of us.

Today, I have nothing,'' she rued.

Paresh Amlani, an accountant, said before the blasts, his monthly income was Rs 25,000 and today it is Rs 7,000.

''The railways offered me a 'D' class job of helpers and peons,'' he said.

Ramesh Naik, whose 26-year-old daughter Nandini was perished inthe blasts, said his daughter was employed in the ICICI Bank and earnedmuch more than the compensation provided.

''My son was offered a job in the 'D' class category of the railways,'' he said.

UNI

Related Stories

>