NEW DELHI: The Indian people will never agree lo any compromise which deprives the country of its nuclear option or erodes the status of Jammu and Kashmir, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) waned the Narasimha Rao Government.
In a news conference and a statement, Party Vice-president Sundar Singh Bhandari demanded that the Government “clearly and categorically” inform the Clinton administration that the security of the country was linked to the possession of nuclear weapons and the indigenous development of missile technology, Bhandari was reacting to the visit of John Malott, interim director of the Bureau of South Asian Affairs, to hold discussions on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and missile technology and on the question of Kashmir, Reiterating that Kashmir was an integral part of India, the BJP leader said the US and other Western powers, if they wanted in help in reducing tensions between India and Pakistan, should tell Pakistan {0 Stop instigating and abetting terrorism in Indian and its financial, material, armed and political support to the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir. According to Bhandari, the Union Cabinet’s latest decision to give direct charge to the Army to deal with terrorism in the State was a “right step.”
He reiterated the BJP stand that here should be no dialogue with militants. A dialogue with any group was irrelevant until terrorism was controlled in the Valley, he said.
Minister of State for Home Rajesh Pilot’s statements have only created confusion, he alleged, adding that the situation has worsened in the Valley ever since Rao allowed Pilot to have a free hand there. Bhandari also sought to discount reports published earlier about Rs 1 crore of scam money finding its way into the BJP West Bengal unit’s account by releasing copies of the letter sent by the RBI, Calcutta branch to its State President Tapan Sikdar. According to the articles, the RBI had” instituted an inquiry to go into the matter.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 28, 1993
