Date: December 4th 2008 6:51:50 a.m.

Prof. G. C. Asnani, M.Sc., Ph.D. (United Nations Service, Retd.)
822, Sindh Colony,
Aundh,
Pune – 411 007 (HINDUSTAN, INDIA)
Tel: 91-20-25880347
E-mail: i) asnanigc@yahoo.com, ii) gcasnani@vsnl.com
iii) gcasnani@hinduvoice.net

News and Views 4th December 2008

India and its innocent nationals suffered colossal losses due to the terrorism which is on-going for last several decades. But why blame Pakistan and the Terrorists for the same ? Our enemies are within. In the vote-bank politics the country has been pushed beyond the edge. All the gullible Indian people need to be enlightened and told in clear terms that the main defaulters in this case are the ones who have been at the helm of affairs of our country - UPA PM Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Changing of the Home Ministers is a mere eye-wash. The real culprits are wearing a mask and shrewdly hiding in the broad day-light. But what about the Prime Minister?

Date: December 2nd 2008 (dailypioneer.com)

The pall of gloom and shame that enveloped the nation in the immediate aftermath of the audacious terrorist attack on Mumbai last week has since given way to unprecedented anger across the country over the deliberate and criminal neglect of national security by the United Progressive Alliance. Unable to cope with the heat, the coalition has quickly dumped Home Minister Shivraj Patil and is promising to slay a few more scapegoats at the altar of public opinion in the hope that these ministerial and bureaucratic 'executions' will douse public wrath.

The people at large, however, should not fall for the bait and lower their guard because the relief that these 'sacrifices' will provide us will only be temporary and cosmetic. As everyone is aware, the ruling coalition and the Congress which heads it are simply unwilling to tackle the original sin that has brought this great nation to its knees, namely the mistaken notion that they can consolidate Muslim votes if they go slow on Muslim terrorists. Nor is it ready to punish the original sinners -- the persons who preside over the coalition and the Government and thus dictate and execute policies that have brought things to such a pass.

The country has become vulnerable to repeated terrorist strikes because of the diabolical and cynical pursuit of vote-bank politics by this coalition since it came to power in May 2004. Here are a few examples of the UPA's blinkered approach and the crass vote chase that some of its leading lights have been indulging in: The Government repeals POTA and holds back clearance of anti-terror laws enacted by Gujarat and Rajasthan; Union Ministers and leading politicians associated with the ruling coalition fall one over the other to empathise with families of persons arrested in connection with the terrorist attacks in Ahmedabad; UPA Ministers and politicians question the integrity of Delhi Police and describe the encounter between the police and terrorists at Jamia Nagar as "fake" despite the martyrdom of a police officer; the Government stands on false prestige even after hundreds of citizens are killed in terrorist bombings and rejects advice to bring in strong, deterrent legal

measures to combat terrorism; a Union Minister demands citizenship rights for 20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who pose a threat to the nation's safety and security; and finally, in a desperate bid to clinch the Muslim vote before the next Lok Sabha election, the Government turns away from the real threat to national security and dissipates its energies and resources chasing the chimera of 'Hindu terror'.

The UPA has let us down on many counts. The coalition is so fixated on Muslim votes that it jettisoned POTA simply because this law had been introduced by the BJP. Egged on by a small bunch of pseudo-secularists whose hearts bleed only for terrorists and secessionists, the UPA coalition also took the fateful decision to deny states like Gujarat and Rajasthan the right to frame stringent anti-terrorism laws. The BJP has pointedly asked, and rightly so, as to how it is legitimate for the Congress-led Government in Maharashtra to have a strong anti-terrorism law like MCOCA, but it is illegitimate for Gujarat and Rajasthan to have an identical law. Similarly, although MCOCA was extended to Delhi in 2002, why is it not used against the accused in terrorism cases in Delhi? How is it that MCOCA is used against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and other accused in the Malegaon blast but the same law is not applied to persons arrested on terrorism charges in the Capital?

Further, the Prime Minister and the Congress president are so obsessed with the minority vote that they have even shelved the advice of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission -- headed by a senior Congressman, Mr Veerappa Moily -- that the Union Government should bring in a stringent anti-terror law. It declared last June that extraordinary crimes like terrorism "require extraordinary provisions" and investigators and prosecutors need to be empowered with "stringent legal provisions" in regard to investigation, bail and trial.

This issue was raised after the Indian Mujahideen conducted a terrorist strike in New Delhi last September in which 25 people were killed and dozens of others were injured. But both the Prime Minister and the Congress president are adamant. They got one of their senior Ministers to debunk the 'Moily Report' and falsely claim that India has stronger anti-terrorism laws than the US and the UK! The ARC also recommended a federal agency to combat terrorism. It said the CBI should be reconstituted as the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Investigation with a separate Anti-Terrorism Division.

Needless to say, the people are paying a heavy price for the Government's reluctance to act on the report of its own ARC. Yet another unpleasant example of minority appeasement degenerating into terrorist appeasement is the manner in which the Government is dragging its feet on the hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guru, who has been sentenced to death for his involvement in the terrorist attack on Parliament House. Why has he not been sent to the gallows? Because the Congress thinks that it will lose Muslim votes if it does so!

The nation has been subject to regular and outrageous serial strikes by terrorists over the last few years. There were many incidents when the BJP was in power. There have been many more after the UPA took charge. So, where is the difference? The difference is that while both Governments have presided over an incompetent security apparatus, the latter must take the blame for sending out all the wrong signals and discouraging anti-terrorist initiatives by the security forces. The difference is one of intentions (niyat). The intentions of the present Government are not genuine. It appears ready to sacrifice the lives of innocent citizens, in order to keep alive a so-called vote-bank. The responsibility for this rests squarely on the shoulders of the Prime Minister and the UPA chairperson who is the de facto Prime Minister. They must be held accountable for all the lives lost in Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere, and for putting us to shame before the
international community. They should not be allowed to shift the blame onto some scapegoats. If we do not quickly ease out the real culprits from their seats of power, public fury may consume all that we hold dear -- our civilisational ethos, our democratic way of life and our Constitution. We should not allow this to happen.