By IANS,
Chandigarh : A new political outfit, Jago (Awake!) Party, Saturday demanded India give up its non-aligned status and join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to more effectively combat terrorism.
“The more than five-decade old Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is no longer relevant in the current world order. The world is no longer divided in blocs headed by two superpowers. Now the questions faced by our country need fresh answers,” party chief Deepak Mittal said here.
“We should join NATO to fight the menace of crossborder terrorism”, he said, adding that if this country were part of the alliance, “any attack on India will be considered an attack on NATO and all the member countries will reply with their combined strength to fight the source of the attack”.
The party was set up Aug 2007 and the Election Commission registered it as a political party Jan 2008.
The party fielded 30 candidates in the recently concluded assembly elections in Rajasthan. It is also planning to contest the forthcoming general elections.
Mittal, a local businessman, said the party, led by “educated and competent individuals, is dedicated to awake the sleeping populace of our country”.
All political parties, national or regional, are playing divisive politics based on caste and religion, he said, adding they decided to enter politics to protest the current scenario and were against “all deceitful politicians”.
“Our party candidates will be intellectuals drawn from the common people and professional politicians who have contested elections from other parties will never be considered as our candidates,” said Mittal.