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India cannot be a Hindu State: Advani
India, U.S. must fight jehadi terrorism together: Advani
Remarks Following Meeting With Indian Deputy Prime Minister Advani
Protestors Oppose Indian Deputy Prime Minister's Visit to US
Hawk deal, terrorism likely to figure during Advani-Blair talks
Meeting with Vajpayee not on Jamali's agenda
Advani
praises Sardar Patel, calls him genius
 Online edition of India's National Newspaper |
| Front Page | ||||
India, U.S. must
fight jehadi terrorism together: Advani
Terrorists had attacked Parliament, temples, aircraft, trains and buses in India and spared no one, including women and children, leading to the death of more than 60,000 innocent Indians, Mr. Advani said.
``The epicentre of international terrorism lies in India's immediate neighbourhood ... it gives me no joy in pointing fingers but the involvement of Pakistan can no longer be ignored,'' he said.
Jehadi terrorism was a threat not only to the security of the two countries but to peace and tranquillity around the world. The terrorists who were against America also come from the same pool of jehadi terrorism, he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister, who is on a 10-day visit to the U.S. and the U.K. to hold discussions on the global war against terrorism, was delivering a talk on `Indo-U.S. Relations in a Strategic Perspective', under the aegis of the World Affairs Council here. Academics and diplomats, including those from Pakistan, were among the audience.
Mr. Advani said the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had once again extended a hand of friendship to Pakistan which should demonstrate that it was sincere in implementing the promises made to the United States. and the international community regarding dismantling of the jehadi terrorist infrastructure which they had spawned and fostered.
Explaining the controversial ``retirement'' threat of the Prime Minister during his recent interview, Mr. Advani said Mr. Vajpayee was referring to his earlier peace bids with Pakistan — Lahore bus trip and the Agra summit — and only implied that he would give up the effort if the third and final attempt failed.
Mr. Advani urged Pakistan to heed the voices of sanity and give up its futile path of confrontation with India. India, he said, was determined to see that the scourge of terrorism was removed and that the people of Jammu and Kashmir lived in peace and prosperity.
He said the infrastructure facilitating cross-border terrorism remained in place as a result of strong support that the terrorists received by being aided, abetted and sponsored from abroad.
Nuclear deterrence
Replying to a question, Mr. Advani said India's nuclear policy was based on no-first use and deterrence. He said if India were made a member of the United Nations Security Council, it would discharge its duties with full responsibility.
Mr. Advani said the purpose of his visit was to weave political, economic and military strands into a strategic partnership.
Indo-US ties, he said, were characterised by an ``unprecedented dynamism and willingness on both sides to strengthen the relations''.
Referring to the visit of the then U.S. President, Bill Clinton, to India in 2000 and invitation to President George W. Bush, Mr. Advani pointed out that after the end of the Cold War, the two ``estranged democracies'' had become ``engaged democracies'' with high-level contacts becoming frequent and substantive.
Tributes to Mahatma, Nehru
The Deputy Prime Minister paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel for their vision to make India a strong democratic and secular state.
He said the economic reforms had brought about growth and these were being implemented without social turmoil or political instability.
`No theocratic state'
Mr. Advani said that India would never become a theocratic state and expressed the confidence that it would be among the world's developed nations by the year 2020.
Theocracy was alien to India and its polity but ``pseudo-secularism would not thrive either,'' the Deputy Prime Minister told a gathering organised by more than 70 associations of Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs).
Even an atheist had a place in Indian society, so a thinker who promoted the ``crass materialism'' of the ``eat, drink and be merry'' philosophy was not prosecuted but tolerated, he said. — UNI
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Remarks Following Meeting With Indian Deputy Prime Minister Advani Secretary Colin L. Powell New Delhi, India July 28, 2002
QUESTION: Did you mention to the Deputy Prime Minister Kashmir and the international focus?SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, we discussed Kashmir. We discussed the line of control. We discussed the need for free and fair elections with freedom for international visitors to go and observe. QUESTION: What was his response? Was it positive? SECRETARY POWELL: Yes. QUESTION: Yes? (inaudible) will allow international observers? SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, I think the same thing. The same thing, for people to be able to look and see what’s going on (inaudible) for people to be able to go and see what’s going on
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This site is managed by the Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein. |
Protestors Oppose Indian Deputy Prime Minister's Visit to US
By T.C. Malhotra
CNSNews.com Correspondent
June 12, 2003
New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - Americans of Indian origin have protested against an
official visit to the U.S. by India's deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani,
who has a controversial history of promoting Hindu fundamentalism.\b
[Karl Note: Compare the speech by
Advani which suggest exactly the opposite of how CBS reported this???[
Indian-American groups under the umbrella of the Coalition to Support Democracy
and Pluralism in India staged a small demonstration outside the Indian Embassy
in Washington Wednesday while Advani was in the building.
Advani has been on an official tour of the U.S. at the invitation of Vice
President Dick Cheney and has also met with President George W. Bush, National
Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
According to the coalition, protestors carried placards comparing Advani with
ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and calling for an end to violence by Hindu
militants against Muslims and Christians in India.
The group also organized a peace vigil at the Gandhi Statue in Washington. It
said some family members of Indians killed during last year's Hindu-Muslim riots
in Gujarat state took part in the vigil.
In a letter to U.S. political leaders, the coalition urged Washington to
withdraw its support for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"We urge the United States to reconsider its support to a religious
fundamentalist party such as the BJP, which will cause permanent damage to the
civil society in India," it said.
The letter was signed by more than 20 coalition member organizations, including
groups representing Christians, Muslims and Hindus of Indian origin.
Advani is known in India for his efforts to strengthen the BJP's hold on power
by promoting Hindu nationalist views and is considered a leading "hard liner"
with regard to India's half-century-old dispute with neighboring Pakistan.
Hindu-majority India accuses Muslim Pakistan of sponsoring terrorists fighting
to end Indian rule in Kashmir, a territory divided between the countries and
claimed in its entirety by both.
Advani is also closely associated with a radical Hindu group called the National
Volunteer Corps (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS), accused by Christians and
Muslims of organizing violent attacks against adherents of the minority faiths.
Despite having a constitution giving equal rights to all religions, India has a
long history of violence between Hindus and Muslims, but attacks on Muslims and
Christians have increased since the BJP took power in March 1998.
In recent years, about 200 attacks on Christians and their institutions have
been reported. Most were blamed on the RSS, which claims four million members,
and similar groups.
Last year, Gujarat was wracked by Hindu-Muslim violence that cost about 900
lives. The killings were triggered when a Muslim mob torched a railway carriage
at Godhara, burning to death 59 Hindu pilgrims. Most of the victims in the end
were Muslims.
In the late 1980s, the RSS launched a public campaign to promote a collective
Hindu identity.
Then in 1991, Advani undertook a historic "chariot journey" from a Hindu temple
in Gujarat to the legendary birthplace of the Hindu god, Ram.
The symbolic journey helped transform the BJP from a marginal group with just
two seats in parliament a decade ago to the ruling party today.
Advani was accused the following year of a role in the destruction by Hindus of
a 16th century mosque, which had been built on a site where some Hindus believe
a Hindu temple once stood.
RSS leaders had no official reaction to the anti-Advani protests in the U.S.
A RSS worker in New Delhi, Ram Singh, on Thursday dismissed the protests.
"The coalition approach against Advani is ridiculous and dangerous," he said.
"At a time when India is trying to create international awareness about
Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, such groups are trying to divert the issue."
Ram said organizations in the U.S. had no right to interfere in India's internal
affairs.
"They should not be concerned as to which political party should rule the
country," he added.
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Meeting with Vajpayee not on Jamali's agenda |
|
| Saturday, 14 June , 2003, 11:28 | |
| Islamabad:
Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said a meeting with
his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee _ for resolving wide ranging
bilateral issues between the two countries _ would be preceded by the talks
at the secretary-level.
Talking to mediapersons, Jamali said groundwork was under way to initiate talks at the secretary-level between the two countries and the outcome of these efforts would determine his meeting with the Indian Premier. The News quoted the prime minister as expressing optimism about holding a meaningful dialogue with Vajpayee in the very near future, but added: "No immediate meeting with the Prime Minister (Vajpayee) is on my current agenda." Jamali said Pakistan was a 'peace-loving country' and it would continue efforts to resolve bilateral issues with India through peaceful means. Stating that conditions were favourable for talks between the two countries, Jamali said: "Let the meetings between the foreign secretaries of the two countries take place, after which the stage would be set for high-level talks between the neighbours." He refused to comment on Indian Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's statement in the US, in which he described Pakistan as the epicentre of international terrorism. He said this matter pertained to Prime Minister Vajpayee and it was up to him to decide whether the statements of his deputy were encouraging the peace process. |
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Advani's US visit a party for all
Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani
greets UN Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor (left) at a special gathering
of some elite Indians and Americans as well, organised by the Consulate General
of India in New York. PTI
NEW YORK: As Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani
wound up his week-long tour of the US on Saturday evening, it was clear that the
two sides are coming to terms with each other. Advani's visit, capped by his
meetings with US President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and senior
US officials, underlined the importance attached by them to the BJP strongman.
While the dividends from his stand against Pakistan are yet to be evaluated,
Advani has clearly resisted the US pressure on India to commit its troops for
peace-keeping in Iraq. He has also extracted a promise from Bush to persuade
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to create conditions conducive to a peace
process between the two countries. The US efforts to engage him have also paid
off, making him give up his widely perceived opposition to peace talks between
India and Pakistan.
The US accorded Advani utmost importance. The President made it a point to meet
with him and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called on him at his hotel room
on a Sunday, a day in advance, because he had to go out the next day. Henry
Kissinger met the Deputy Prime Minister for 25 minutes. Scores of Secret Service
personnel shadowed him wherever he went. At times, even helicopters were pressed
into service to strengthen his security.
Advani played his cards rather well. It was the Nehru-card before elitist
gatherings at his lectures at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and the
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. Once among the diaspora, he was back to be
his normal self of a Sardar Patel-fan. For example, while addressing a gathering
of the diaspora at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan here on Friday night, he made
references to Patel and even Veer Savarkar. He told the people of Indian-origin
to undertake a ``pilgrimage to the Cellular Jail at the Andamans, if they could,
to get an idea of the conditions in which Savarkar spent 10 years of solitary
confinement.''
Drawing large crowds of members of the Indian community, he chose to play to the
gallery. The BJP move to confer dual-citizenship on overseas Indians was enough
to win the hearts of the diaspora. Wherever he went, his reference to the Bill
on the issue electrified the diaspora. Shedding the acquired sober mannerism of
the American society, the members of the Indian community let themselves go in
jubilation. Whistles and 'Bharat Mata ki jai' greeted his references to the
dual-citizenship move. They gave him standing ovations wherever he went. If they
had to pay up dollars to be seated at dinners in his honour, they did not mind
paying up.
For a community yearning to assert its self-confidence after achieving a marked
success in all walks of life, his rhetoric was enough to draw cheers. If he
talked of a permanent seat for India at the UN, the audience clapped in support.
If he said that ``this century belongs to India and we would become a
superpower'' they were ready to lend a helping hand by clapping.
At the end of the day, Advani seemed to have come out of the shell and is set to
acquire a wider profile. If the world is keen on dealing with him, well, he is
willing too.
Advani praises Sardar Patel, calls him genius
New York, June 14 (UNI) Deputy Prime
Minister L K Advani has paid glowing tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,
saying he was solely responsible for the unification of India in the
post-Partition period.
''(British-ruled) India would have been split into 500 parts -- not just two --
but for the wisdom and courage shown by Patel,'' Mr Advani told an
Indian-American community meeting last night. ''It's an act of a genius.'' The
Deputy Prime Minister said amid applause, ''He (Sardar Patel) persuaded some,
awakened patriotism among others and used force in a few cases.'' In his speech
to the meeting, a dinner-reception organized mainly by the local Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan chapter and co-sponsored by various community organizations, Mr Advani
referred to Sardar Patel's contributions to a united India and the erstwhile
princely states.
The BJP leader -- who spoke mostly Hindi -- unveiled the portrait of Sardar
Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister of Independent India, on the occasion.
''When Nizam decided to be the ruler of an independent state, citing an
unauthenticated assurance by the departing British, the Sardar was unwavering in
his stance. Though he called in the Army to ensure the merger of Hyderabad state
with the Indian Union, it was named only 'police action' (to minimize public
opposition),'' Mr Advani, observed.
He also unveiled the statue of Jayaprakash Narayan, whose birth centenary is
currently being celebrated in India. The statue, made in Patna, where Narayan
had his early education, was brought from New Delhi on Thursday.
The Deputy Prime Minister formally inaugurated the centenary celebrations by
lighting a traditional lamp.
Noting democracy is the hallmark of Indian polity, Mr Advani said ''JP'' was
instrumental in expelling the ''eclipse of emergency'' on the country's
democracy during the 20-month period in 1975-77.
Some European experts had predicted that democracy would not survive in India
because of its huge illiterate population, but they were proved wrong, the
Deputy Minister recalled.
Ambassador Lalit Mansingh formally introduced the Deputy Prime Minister to the
audience at the two-hour event.
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