NEW DELHI, March 24: India’s ruling Congress party on Tuesday officially announced a second term for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should it win the April-May polls and said his temperate Pakistan policy had produced much better results than the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign for aggression towards Islamabad.

“Dealing with terrorism aided and abetted from across our borders does not require a ‘muscular’ foreign policy as advocated by the BJP,” the party’s manifesto claimed. “The country knows the heavy price that was paid for such a ‘muscular’ foreign policy — stupor in Kargil, surrender in Kandahar and stalemate in Operation Parakram.”

The examples cited as failures of the BJP’s policy towards Pakistan have been challenged by the opposition party. BJP officials say it was the military pressure mounted by the Operation Parakram in 2001-2 that resulted in a declaration by Pakistan in 2004 in which it promised not to allow its territory to be used for terrorism against India.

“What India needs is an intelligent and wise foreign policy, a foreign policy that is rooted in our traditions, gives us strength through our unity and common purpose, and radiates confidence,” the Congress said in its poll promise.

It claimed that after the November attacks on Mumbai, the Congress-led UPA government mounted a forceful diplomatic campaign. “It was this campaign that led to Pakistan admitting, for the first time, that Pakistani citizens were responsible for the attacks. That admission was a notable victory for our well thought out foreign policy.”

The party said its “patient but forceful diplomacy” had got Pakistan to admit that its citizens were responsible for carrying out the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The Congress party “has striven for an enduring peace and for close economic relations with Pakistan. The Indian National Congress has also encouraged extensive people-to-people contacts between the two countries, particularly amongst the younger generation. But the Mumbai attacks have cast a long shadow on the on-going dialogue and engagement process. It is now entirely up to Pakistan to break the impasse by taking credible action against those responsible for the carnage in Mumbai. If it does so and dismantles the terrorist networks that operate from its soil, a Congress-led government will not be found wanting in its response.”

Congress president Sonia Gandhi officially named Dr Singh as the prime ministerial candidate, but it was not clear if he would contest the Lok Sabha polls or continue to play it safe as member of the upper house.

The Congress scoffed at the Left-led Third Front calling it a recipe for political instability. “Lacking a natural national anchor, it is a recipe for chaos, not cohesion. Only a united India can fight terrorism.”

Terrorism, the manifesto said, threatened many countries, including India. “Let it be very clear — terrorism must be fought relentlessly, intelligently and wisely, and without fear or favour. Terrorism can be fought only by a united people, not by a people divided by religion.”
Tags: