NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Indian Prime Atal Behari Vajpayee, bracing to join an increasingly communal election campaign in Gujarat, accused Pakistan on Sunday of seeking to destabilize India’s economy by fomenting terrorism.
Vajpayee’s remarks came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani dared Pakistan to a fourth war to sort out their differences in comments that were promptly slammed by Pakistan as provocative.
Vajpayee’s statement coincided also with similarly hawkish remarks by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who justified India’s acquisition of nuclear weapons on the grounds that India’s neighbours had them.
Star News quoted Vajpayee as saying at a public function here that he would travel to Islamabad to attend the Saarc meeting there only after Pakistan reins in what New Delhi describes as cross-border terrorism.
Islamabad denies the charge and says it has always condemned attacks against civilian targets as acts of terror.
“Our neighbour is perturbed with our progress and economic development. Terrorism is being urged to destabilize our economy,” Vajpayee told a gathering after laying the foundation-stone of Mohan Shakti Heritage Park here.
Referring to the recent attack, second this year, on Raghunath Temple in Jammu, he said: “More temples can be targeted. We have information in this regard.
“But we will not be frightened and will fight terrorism and win the war against it,” he was quoted by the Press trust of India as saying.
Advani too stepped up his offensive against Islamabad on Sunday and asked the international community to “ostracize terror states”.
Without directly referring to Pakistan, he said: “Terrorist organizations are dangerous but terror states are far more dangerous. The international community should ostracize such terror states in the interest of democracy, civilization and humanity.”
President Kalam supported the country’s nuclear programme, saying: “You can not sit idle when your neighbour is developing nuclear bombs.”
The president’s comments came while interacting with the students of the Coast Guard Public School in Daman after presenting ‘colours’ to the sentinels of the Indian Maritime Force.
Kalam brushed aside queries on nuclear non-proliferation saying: “India is now a nuclear weapon state.” Asked about the country’s defence expenditure, he said: “We spent fraction of an amount on defence compared to our neighbours.”—J.N
