PM Candidate Modi’s Bluff: Vajpayee forced the world to debate terrorism Mukul Sinha September 17, 2013 | Leave a response In his maiden appearance after being declared as the PM candidate of BJP, Modi chose to speak to a large crowd of ex-military people as if he was ordained to do so. He in fact specifically mentioned that the Rewari meeting was fixed before he was declared as the PM candidate; Modi went on to add that it must be the wish of the almighty that his first meeting was with the ex-servicemen after he became the party’s candidate for Prime Minister. The speech he delivered was more like that of a RSS pracharak rather than a PM candidate of the largest democracy punctuated by the usual quota of lies, half-truths and political bluffs. We have already dealt with a few bluffs, but the one that was politically misleading is necessary to be dealt with in details. That the Vajpayee Government had forced the world to turn their attention to the dangers of terrorism.. The reality is that terrorist actions that took place between 1998 to 2004 were handled very poorly by the Vajpayee Government. On 13 October 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as Prime Minister of India for the third time. The BJP-led NDA had won 303 seats in the 543 seat Lok Sabha in the aftermath of Kargil operations. Prior to this, Vajpayee had been the Prime Minister for 13 days in 1996 and for 13 months starting April 1998. As per the Global Terrorism Record (GTD2), 7,184 terrorist incidents were recorded worldwide between 1998 and 2004. The largest number of terrorist incidents in the world occurred in India (784), followed by Colombia (571), the Russian Federation (435), and Algeria (426). We have reproduced herein below few incidents of violence that took place during the aforesaid period: IC-814-Jaswant-Singh-With-TerroristsA national crisis popped up on 24th December 1999, when Indian Airlines flight (IC 814) en-route from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked by five Pakistani terrorists and flown to Taliban ruled Afghanistan.The hijackers made several demands including the release of certain Kashmiri terrorists like Maulana Masood Azhar from prison. The plane first landed in an Indian Airport for re-fueling and took off for Lahore without any effort made by the Central Government to arrest the terrorists. The government ultimately caved in and Jaswant Singh, the Indian External Affairs minister, flew with the terrorists to Afghanistan and exchanged them for the passengers. Maulana Masood Azhar went on to form a powerful terrorist organisation across the border. No explanation was given by the Indian government for the External Affairs minister personally escorting the terrorists. The handling of the Kandahar hijack remains the most humiliating surrender to the terrorists. As if this humiliation was not enough, On 13 December 2001, a group of masked, armed men with fake IDs stormed the Parliament building in Delhi. The terrorists managed to kill several security guards, but the building was sealed off swiftly and security forces cornered and killed the men. The attack on the Parliament was like attacking the centre of Gravity of the Indian State, yet it happened because of the complete failure of the Indian Intelligence Bureau which has now been proved to be busy creating fake intelligence! Next came the mass murder of the minorities in the violence of Gujarat in 2002. Atal Behari Government watched the killings as a mute spectator without making any effort to send the army on the first day. The former President K.R. Narayan had informed the Justice Nanavati Commission by his letter dated 8.4.2005 that he did state to the journalist P T Thomas that he as the President had written to the Prime Minister Vajpayee to deploy army in Gujarat to protect the minority which was not complied with! 2002, September 25: Two terrorists allegedly belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed group raided the Akshardham temple complex in Ahmedabad at a stone’s throw distance from the house of Gujarat CM, killing 30 people and injuring many more. Another instance of total failure of Central Intelligence. Besides large scale violence, we are also listing few terrorist actions which went unchallenged: 2000, March 16: Sadar Bazaar At least five persons were injured in a bomb blast in Sadar Bazaar. 2000, March 21: India Church Gate rail station Four commuters were injured when an explosive device detonated inside of a train during peak rush hour. The blast occurred shortly before the train arrived at the Church Gate rail station on the Western Railway. 2000, June 19: New Delhi: Two bombs killed 2 people and injured 11 at the Red Fort. 2002, January 22: Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on guards at the American Center in Kolkata, killing five people. 2002, May 13: Twelve people are killed in the Jaunpur train crash, caused when Islamic extremists cut the rails. 2003, August 25: At least 48 people were killed and 150 injured in two blasts in south Mumbai – one near the Gateway of India at the other at the Zaveri Bazaar. Apart from the terrorist attacks, the Kargil invasion was also the result of a failure of Intelligence. Ex Army Chief VP Malik acknowledged that RAW and IB were in denial of Kargil Intelligence Failure. This led to militants and non-uniformed Pakistani soldiers (many with official identifications and Pakistan Army’s custom weaponry) had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley and captured control of border hilltops, unmanned border posts and were spreading out fast. The incursion was centered around the town of Kargil, but also included the Batalik and Akhnoor sectors and include artillery exchanges at the Siachen Glacier. Indian army units were rushed into Kashmir in response. Operation Vijay (1999), launched in June 1999, saw the Indian military fighting thousands of militants and soldiers amidst heavy artillery shelling and while facing extremely cold weather, snow and treacherous terrain at high altitudes. Over 500 Indian soldiers were killed in the three-month long Kargil War and after heavy sacrifice, the Indian forces could regain a large part of the area captured by the Pakistan army. It was at the instance of the American President Bill Clinton, the Pakistan Prime Minister Nawab Sharif ended the war. The Kargil war was won due to the enormous sacrifice and valour of the Indian armed forces despite the complete failure of the Vajpayee Government to assess the Pakistani strategy of Gen. Musharraf. I should be recalled that before the Kargil infiltration, Vajpayee had flagged off the Buss Service to Pakistan. The matter did not stop here. Even after the Kargil war, the naive Vajpayee invited Gen Musharraf once again for peace talks!! The above facts are the real signature of the Atal Behari Government that Modi wants India to follow! It was primarily because of the mindless and spineless policy of the BJP Government of 1999- 2004 that cross- border terrorism spread in India, specially their divide and rule policy. The Rewari speech is also replete with such naive and ludicrous assertions to pass off as fight against terrorism!
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:33:09 +0000
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