New Delhi, Feb 12: Dwelling on his pet aversion - jehadi terrorism - Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Tuesday opened a new front with the Congress by comparing the mindset that imposed Emergency with that of despots.
What is interesting is that Mr Advani drifted from the written speech to take a dig at the Congress, saying that the actions of the Government during the Emergency smacked of little else than despotism.
Though Mr Advani did not name Indira Gandhi, his observations are bound to start a fresh row, given the Congress party's strong views on the Sangh Parivar.
Addressing the International Youth Conference on Terrorism organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Mr Advani said despotism manifested itself in various ways like colonialism, fascism and the Indian experience with emergency or jehadi terrorism, as they all refused to accept pluralism in society.
Mr Advani recalled that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then Leader of Opposition, was put behind bars because he was exposing the shortcomings of the Government. "People were subjected to untold miseries and extreme methods of violence and torture during the 19 months of Emergency.
Similar brutal methods are being implemented by the jehadis. I consider the brief period of aberration an eclipse of democracy," he said. Mr Advani observed that the world was witnessing a historic struggle between democratic and despotic forces. He said the mindless violence unleashed by jehadis was driven by an ideology that hates the very concept of democracy, secularism, multi-culturalism and individual freedom. "The ideology of pan-Islamism does not believe in the concept of national sovereignty and national boundaries. Hence it did not hesitate to kill ordinary citizens in Mombassa, thousands of innocent people belonging to 40 different countries in the World Trade Centre and claim legitimacy in sending jehadis to Kashmir from other countries," he said.
Stating that jehadis unleashing a reign of terror in India were non-state combatants, Mr Advani said such forces cannot sustain their campaign too long without the active support of a state that believes in the ideology of jehad to settle political disputes. "In our case, such active support to non-state combatants is coming from Pakistan" he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that Pakistan also lent support to these non-state combatants to target other democracies and secular societies by actually midwifing a jehadi state in its immediate neighbourhood - the state of Taliban in Afghanistan.
Mr Advani said that the attack on the WTC in New York could have been averted had Washington heeded the now-slain leader of anti-Taliban forces, commander Ahmed Shah Masood's warnings about the dangerous triangular alliance between the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence.
Mr Advani exuded confidence that India was capable of fighting the proxy war unleashed by Pakistan on its own and did not expect others fight its battle.
"What really disappoints is the fact that the country party to the global coalition against terrorism is not fulfiling its job," he said.
He categorically said that India was interested in resolving the Kashmir issue through a meaningful dialogue provided Pakistan desists from cross border terrorism. "Pakistan attacked India on Kargil front though Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had undertaken a bus yatra to Lahore to normalise the situation. He (Mr Vajpayee) invited General Pervez Musharraf to India for negotiations though he attained the power through "other means". "We are longing to resolve the issue peacefully if Pakistan stop supporting Jehadis," he said.
Mr Advani said the Vajpayee Government has been carrying on a sustained campaign in the world to create awareness that terrorism may be a menace today for India's peace but actually was a threat for all democracies and for civilisation itself. The International Youth Conference on Terrorism has unanimously resolved to establish a permanent secretariat of World Council of
Youth Against Terrorism at New Delhi and BJYM national president G Kishan Reddy as the first chairman. Mr Reddy will constitute a core group from among the delegates of participating countries.
The conference also decided to launch awareness programmes all over the world by organising seminars, symposiums, and conferences at various levels. The conference resolved to persuade various governments to enact legislations against terrorism for protection of human rights.
Bureau Report
