UPA not acting against terror because of 'foreign pressure'

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition L K Advani today accused the UPA of not combating the terrorist threat to India because of ''vote bank'' consideration but also due to foreign pressure.

In a statement coinciding with the first anniversary of the Mumbai serial blasts, Mr Advani said the UPA government was not only unable to comprehend the terrorist threat to India and therefore, unable to have a firm plan to combat it because of vote bank considerations. Justifying his statment, Mr Advani said soon after the blasts Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was the 'handiwork' of Pakistan but in a few weeks, he announced in Havana that India and Pakistan would establish Joint Mechanism to fight terror. "It was shocking to see that India was going to join hands with very country that has used terrorism as a state policy against India", Mr Advani noted.

He said when previous governments in the country spent years to convince the world about Pakistan as a source of terror, and the UPA government last year had made a 'U-turn' on India's approach when it decided to find a partner in Islamabad to fight terror.

Urging the PM and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to implement every promise they made to the victims before the Independence Day, Mr Advani took Dr Singh to task for stating that he spent a 'sleepless night' watching the plight of families of Indian nationals caught for their involvement in terrorist activities in Britain. "One has never heard of the PM lose sleep over the plight of the victims of 7/11", he remarked.

Mr Advani, who held the Home portfolio in the NDA regime, said one chould not expect the Congress to abandon their 'kid glove' policy towards terrorism inspired by ideologies spreading hatredness against India and act against alarming spread of local cells of foreign inspired terrorist organisations because the UPA had chosen to 'communalise' India's internal security policy as a principle for survival in office. "We have to get rid of this weak and visonless government at the Centre", Mr Advani asserted.

UNI