NEW DELHI, 26 October — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday said Pakistan was taking the form of a terrorist nation, but India was determined and prepared to eliminate the "demon" of terrorism.
"Our neighbor (Pakistan) pretends to oppose terrorism in front of the world but does not hesitate to send terrorists to our country to kill innocent men, women and children," Vajpayee said at a rally of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition to mark three years in office.
"This demon of terrorism has to be eliminated," Vajpayee said. "We have the resolve to end it. For that we have to prepare ourselves mentally. Pakistan is emerging as a terrorist state."
Expressing concern over the Bali bombings and the siege on a Russian theater by Chechnya rebels, Vajpayee said the world should unite in combating such terror. "We need more preparation to fight terrorism. I don’t know how long it will take to stem terror, but we are prepared to end it and we have to be mentally prepared for the fight."
Vajpayee said the kind of cross-border terrorism aided by Pakistan on Indian soil was a "new type of danger", worse than conventional war in which troops faced each other along borders.
Vajpayee’s fresh attack came a day after India began pulling troops back from the border with Pakistan, stepping back from a year-long military standoff over the contested Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Reminding how the terrorists involved in the attack on the Parliament and the storming of a temple in Gujarat were killed, the prime minister stated: "We have been tackling terrorism for 20 years, and we will fight it in the times to come."
Describing the Gujarat riots as regrettable, the premier emphasized that it should never be repeated.
The prime minister was the last but not the only speaker boasting about the government’s success in highlighting what he said was India’s struggle against Pakistan-backed terrorism.
Notable among them was former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who urged New Delhi to take tough decisions to resolve the dragging militancy in the Himalayan state.
A day after making peace with Hindu hard-liners, Vajpayee yesterday sought to put his stamp of authority on the ruling coalition.
In a short but wide-ranging speech, Vajpayee took pains to deny any animosity or power struggle with Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, and used the meet to gently chide Hindu right-wing groups for their stridency.
"There are no differences between Advani and me. We have worked together for 50 years and will continue to do so in future," he asserted, urging the media to stop making a fuss about the relations between the government’s two top leaders. Vajpayee’s comments came amid weeks of criticism of the prime minister by influential Hindu revivalist outfits allied to his party that are, however, known to have a soft corner for Advani.
Vajpayee also played down differences within his coalition and said that too much had been read into his week-long disappearance due to ill health.
"I had a sore throat in Lucknow and I did not speak. The next day I saw in newspapers, ‘Vajpayee ran away from Lucknow.’ Lucknow is my terrain, why would I run away?
Analysts said his strong comments yesterday were intended mainly for domestic consumption to appease his Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) hard-line Hindu allies, who have accused him of being too soft on Pakistan. "The real backdrop to this is internal, I don’t see change in foreign policy," analyst Mahesh Rangarajan said.
