By IANS
New Delhi : Contesting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani’s charges that the government has failed to control terrorism and extremism, the Congress said Thursday it has a much better record than the previous regime and that there was “no limit to BJP hypocrisy”.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters that Advani and the BJP should look at their own record in controlling terrorism and then blame the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
“There is no limit to BJP hypocrisy and double-facedness on the issue. The hijacking of IC-814 plane to Kandahar in December 1999 when Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Zargar were taken as special guests to Afghanistan and let off shows their stand on terrorism.”
Singhvi also mentioned the two attacks on the Raghunath temple, the attack on Akshardham temple, the Red Fort in Delhi and the Parliament House, all of which took place during the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.
“Despite all this, NDA welcomed Pervez Musharraf to Agra without asking any questions,” Singhvi said.
He also blamed the NDA government of giving Peter Bleach – the prime accused in the Purulia arms drop case who was also convicted – a safe passage out of the country.
Singhvi was addressing a hurriedly called press conference to reply to Advani’s dig at the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at a mammoth rally in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, on Wednesday.
Advani had blamed the UPA government of failing to provide him adequate security and being soft on terrorism and Naxalism. The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate was forced to cancel the 13 political rallies that the party had planned after National Security Advisor (NSA) M.K. Narayanan met him and apprised him of a threat to his life.
The BJP has focused on terrorism as one of the prime issues for its election campaign and has said that the Congress had failed to control it. The BJP also holds the Left hold on the government as a reason for its soft stand on naxalism.
“Naxalism has actually gone down by 70 percent in Andhra Pradesh – the hotbed of Naxalism – since UPA came to power in 2004.” He said that the BJP and its allies ruled the three worst Naxal-affected states – Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa.
“Out of 14,000 police station areas in the country only 300 are facing the problem of Naxalism. This is just two percent of the total,” Singhvi added.
“Advani should berate and criticize his own chief ministers before lecturing us,” he said.