Veteran BJP leader lK Advani has demanded apology from Defence Minister AK Antony for making a “false” statement on the killing of five Indian jawans by Pakistan Army.
Criticising Antony for exonerating Pakistan for the sake of continuing the Indo-Pak dialogue process, the former deputy Prime Minister warned that talks under present situation would outrage the nation. “I hold that what the Raksha Mantri has said in the House (on Tuesday), it is intended only to exonerate Pakistan Government and absolve it of the responsibility for killing five Indian soldiers,” Advani told reporters, adding, “I have a feeling that the Government wants to continue talks with Pakistan.”
Advani claimed the incident was a “formal invasion” by the Pakistani Army, who entered “our borders and killed Indian soldiers”. He said, “The Defence Minister himself should tell the House what the truth is and apologies for what he said.” On whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should hold talks with his Pakistan’s counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the forthcoming UN summit, Advani replied, “This is no time for such talks”.
Advani also sought a clarification from Antony on Army’s view that action of the Pakistani forces is a likely consequence of frustrations of terrorist tanzeem (groups) and Pakistan army due to elimination of 19 hardcore terrorists near the loC and in Kashmir recently.
Meanwhile, leader of the Opposition in lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj wrote on Twitter that, Defence Minister’s statement about killing of 5 Indian jawans was contrary to the Press release issued by the Defence wing.” “Defence wing’s statement categorically accuses Pak Army. However, Defence Minister told both Houses of Parliament that ambush was carried out by some persons dressed in Army uniform.”
Her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley also demanded that there should be no talks between India and Pakistan. “There is no atmosphere for talks. You (Centre) are enthusiastic about the talks, but people think otherwise. You cannot have attacks and talks at the same time,” he said.
Congress defence of Minister rings hollow
The Congress on Wednesday strongly defended Defence Minister AK Antony, insisting there was no goof-up, mistake or contradiction in his statement in Parliament, as it had not given a clean chit to the Pakistan Army. Congress spokesperson PC Chacko said there was no politicalmotive behind Antony’s statement and that there was no contradiction in his statement and Army’s release.
It was a “wrong” interpretation to say that the Defence Minister meant that Pakistan Army was not involved in the attack along the line of Control, Chacko said adding, “Any attempt to twist, misinterpret or politicise the issue will be unfortunate. There is no denying the role of the Pakistani Army.”
Rejecting BJP’s criticism of the Government giving an escape route to Pakistan to claim involvement of non-State players, Chacko said that Pakistan doesn’t need Antony’s statement to do so as even after the beheading of Indian soldier in the past it had similarly denied. Moreover, war is no solution and dialogue and discussion are the only way to resolve disputes with the neighbour, he pointed out.
launching a counter-offensive against the BJP, he said anybody trying to fish in troubled waters will not succeed. Chacko reminded BJP that the lahore visit by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was followed by Kargil war while after Agra summit terrorists had attacked Indian Parliament.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said, “Pakistan is exploiting the divide inside our Parliament... whether they (attackers) were the Pakistan Army or terrorists in uniform, the responsibility for the attack is on Pakistan.”The Congress came out with statistics to maintain that infiltration from across the border has declined during the UPA regime as compared to previous NDA tenure. Number of civilian casualties also decreased comparatively, it said.