Excerpts from BJP President’s speech at
Sarojini Nagar in New Delhi on October 17, 2006

BJP President Shri Rajnath Singh said that the President of India should not entertain the demand for clemency to Mohammad Afzal. Even the petition was not filed by Afzal, and more he was unrepentant about his crime. “Even Constitutionally a mercy petition is valid only if the person given death sentence files it. But in Afzal case this procedure was not adopted”, Shri Singh said today while staging a dharna against the move to give pardon to Afzal, the prime accused in attack on Parliament House, at Sarojini Nagar market in New Delhi.

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress led UPA Government Shri Rajnath Singh said that the country was not in safe hands as it was playing hand in glove with the separatist forces and playing vote bank politics on the issues of national interest.

“When Mumbai was attacked with a series of train bomb blasts Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had said that India would not indulge in peace parleys unless terrorist attacks on India stopped. But within a month he was singing a different tune in Havana and even went to the extent of announcing a joint mechanism on terror and acknowledged Pakistan as a victim of terror”, Shri Singh said.

Asking the Prime Minister to share those reasons responsible for his change of heart with the country, BJP President said, “I wonder what exactly is Joint Mechanism meant for? Yesterday we could hear a Pakistani official making announcement to plead the case of giving clemency to Afzal. Is this the Joint Mechanism aiming for? ”

Coming down heavily on Pakistan Shri Rajnath Singh said that the UPA Government should summon the Pakistani High Commissioner and tell the country to mend its ways. “If it does not show results within few days then India should reconsider its diplomatic ties with Pakistan,” Shri Singh added.

Calling Pakistan a “rogue state” Shri Singh said, there had been reports that Pakistan’s nuclear scientist A Q Khan had been actively involved in smuggling of nuclear technology to other countries.

“We in India would like to know whether this nuclear technology had been smuggled to terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda or not? If this turns out to be truth then there could be a threat not only to India but also to humankind,” he said demanding the nuclear programme of Pakistan should be brought under the scanner of International Agencies.

Paying tributes to those killed in attack on Parliament and in the Sarojini Nagar bomb blasts last year Shri Singh said, “There is a growing feeling among the international community that India is a soft State when it comes to dealing with terror. The recent decisions and activities of the UPA Government are to be blamed for this soft image as it has crumbled under vote bank compulsions.”

(Shyam Jaju)
Headquarter Incharge