Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002
Wednesday, Dec 18, 2002 |
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By Our Special Correspondent
Replying to a discussion on internal security in the Lok Sabha today, the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, said the Government would continue to vigorously pursue the policy of ``pre-emptive intelligence'' as it was the best protection against terrorism. Though the four-hour-long discussion saw members touch upon various security issues including the fundamentalism of Hindutva organisations, Mr. Advani confined his reply to cross-border terrorism, and reiterated that countries rendering support to terrorist organisations were more dangerous than the outfits carrying out the operations. Referring to the latest terrorist encounter in Delhi on Saturday, he said intelligence agencies had information that the slain terrorists had orders from across the border to do something spectacular in the Capital on either December 6 (the 10th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition) or December 13 (the first anniversary of the attack on Parliament). All praise for the intelligence agencies, Mr. Advani was critical of the tendency to question their actions and said it was demoralising them. In this particular instance, he said, the terrorists had been sounded an ultimatum to do something on December 14. "Had they not been killed, I do not know what kind of havoc they could have wrecked,'' he said, lamenting the fact that one of them managed to escape. As for the Congress Chief Whip, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi's charge that the Government spoke in several voices on security issues, Mr. Advani countered it by stating that the various statements of NDA Ministers — quoted by the Opposition leader — were made at different times and in varying contexts. About the international support for India's fight against terrorism — given the Government's claim that the world had begun seeing merit in India's views on terrorism post-September 11 — the Deputy Prime Minister said the country did not expect others to wage battle on its behalf against terrorism. `We know that this is our problem, and we will have to deal with it. But, the least we expect from the global community is that they do not help Pakistan.'' To a specific question on whether the Nagaland Government would be involved in the forthcoming talks with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac Muivah faction) later this month, Mr. Advani assured the House that the State Government would be taken into confidence when something substantive emerged out of the discussions. Initiated by Prabodh Panda of the CPI on Thursday last, the discussion under Rule 193 had to be carried forward to today as other business preoccupied the House in the intervening days. Unlike on Thursday when there were heated exchanges between the Opposition and the BJP benches, the thinly-attended discussion — which saw most political parties make a statement — was rather tame today with even the scathing criticism of the Government by Mr. Dasmunshi going unchallenged.
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