By Sanjay Sharma, IANS
Bhopal : India has emerged the “terror capital of the world” in the last three years due to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s soft approach on terrorism, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged Sunday.
“Terror in India, which has suffered 3,674 deaths in terror-related incidents since 2004, is a hydra-headed monster. During the last 10 years, 53,000 innocent Indians have fallen victim to terrorism, seriously affecting 156 districts across 13 states,” said the party in a resolution on terrorism on the concluding day of its three-day national executive meet.
“Different states in the northeast are in grip of violence, Jammu and Kashmir has earned the dubious distinction of having the maximum number of casualties in terror-related violence in the country, and the Maoist threat looms large over 137 districts spread in about a dozen states, but the country does not has a law to deal with the menace.
“Despite all this, the UPA government refuses to have any effective law like POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) with Home Minister Shivraj Patil turning down in parliament the demand for such a law, describing it as ‘draconian’,” the resolution said.
“In fact, the UPA sent the signal that it would be a soft state soon after it took power and annulled POTA in its attempt to gain votes of Muslim minorities,” the party alleged.
“From deferring a decision on the hanging of the parliament attack accused Afzal Guru to raking up the Sri Krishna Commission Report on Mumbai riots of 1993 as a counterweight to the law taking its own course on the perpetrators of Mumbai’s serial blasts, and by turning Nelson’s eye on the glorification of terrorists and extremists by various parties who are part of the UPA and the Left that keeps the government in power, the goal has been to gloss over the reality of jihadi cloud over the world and the country.”
The BJP also accused the Congress of colluding with United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in Assam.
In Jammu & Kashmir, the BJP said, “the so-called `secular’ parties have been seeking reduction in the strength of the army in the state and its withdrawal from many crucial areas in order to appease their vote bank. Not only this, false allegations are frequently made against the security forces, in the name of violations of human rights, with a view to demoralize them, with the result that the situation in the valley continues to be disturbed and it has not been possible to create conditions conducive for the return of the Kashmiri Pandits back to their homes.”
The BJP said that not a single terror incident had been traced to its roots in the last three years.
“And how can it be, when the parties like the Congress and the Left compete for public demonstration of loyalty to an extremist leader like Mahdani (Abdul Nasir Maudany) of Kerala whom the earlier governments and courts considered too hot to be left off even on bail?”
The resolution concluded that the BJP believes that it is the UPA government’s policy of treating the roots of terror with velvet gloves and covering up for these terror merchants with some myths that are responsible for the nation being disabled from making the right choice.
“It is time that the UPA government and the Left are thrown out of power. The BJP condemns the fact that the UPA government is soft towards the anti-nationals with a view to consolidate its vote bank,” it said.