Advani

New Delhi, Feb. 9: The BJP has rejected the Congress argument that national security should not be made an electoral issue, saying the UPA government’s lack of political will to curb terrorism was worrying the nation.

“There is a strong national consensus on firm action against terrorism. The Congress and its allies, with their eyes on vote banks, are repeatedly giving signals to terrorists and their patrons in India and across the border that a strong initiative against terrorism is tradable for votes,” party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday.

“If this attitude is amended, the BJP will have no problems.”

Prasad said the Congress’s criticism of L.K. Advani’s sustained focus on terrorism was not only “amusing” but also an attempt to “conveniently gloss over” its own dismal record in checking terror.

Blaming the Congress for the continuing violence in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, he said: “The core issue is whether one fights terror and terrorists with commitment and conviction, or with convenience and an eye on the vote bank. This is the crucial benchmark that differentiates the BJP and the Congress.”

The Congress had on Wednesday warned Advani against making national security a subject of partisan warfare, pointing to the terror strikes during the NDA regime such as the Kandahar hijack and the attack on Parliament.

The BJP responded by saying that most of those involved in these incidents had either been killed or convicted. Conceding that Kandahar had been a painful experience, Prasad said the BJP-led government had decided to release the hostages as overwhelming national opinion favoured that.

On the price India has had to pay for freeing Masood Azhar, now masterminding the terror campaign against the country, the BJP spokesperson was at a loss for words.

He quickly moved on to another subject — Afzal Guru, the Parliament attack accused. The BJP, which has been clamouring that the death-row convict be immediately hanged, has accused the Centre of sitting on the sentence.

Prasad refuted the Congress charge that Afzal had been arrested and released by the NDA regime just before the Parliament attack. He said Afzal had been rounded up for questioning 11 times by Kashmir police between 1993 and 1997 on grounds of suspicious activities. He was again picked up in 2001, but was not formally arrested, Prasad said.