Lahore Declaration relevant — PM

KULLU, JULY 14: Stating that the Kargil war clouds had still not fully receded from the country's horizon, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vaj...

KULLU, JULY 14: Stating that the Kargil war clouds had still not fully receded from the country’s horizon, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee issued a warning asking the infiltrators to retreat. "In case they are willing to go, we will not stop them. But we will not wait indefinitely," said Vajpayee while addressing a public rally at the Dhalpur ground at Kullu here on Wednesday.

Later talking to newspersons, Vajpayee reiterated that the Lahore Declaration was relevant even after Kargil. Otherwise, to make a new beginning, Pakistan has to undertake fresh commitments, he said. The PM declined to make any statement on the current controversy over the July 16 deadline.

That the PM was riding over a Kargil nationalist upsurge was evident from the tenor of speeches. Twenty of the 25 minutes of his speech were on Kargil and defence issues. The BJP leadership too ensured that Kargil remained "the issue" at the meeting.

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BJP national secretary Narendra Modi indicated that they would confront the Congress on theKargil issue in the coming days.

He was severely critical of the Congress, and accused it of "attempts to play with the blood of Kargil martyrs. He questioned the silence of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi on the issue and asked why she had not criticised Pakistan during the Kargil crisis.

He stated that the Congress was acting like a university professor by posing questions on Kargil. "We will confront the Congress strategy of posing a question a day, by enumerating one achievement of the Vajpayee Government every day," he added. While so far the BJP has denied that Kargil would be an election issue, the speeches by the BJP leaders barring the PM, indicates otherwise.

Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal raised questions about the role of the Congress in the previous conflicts, namely return of 90,000 soldiers after the 1972 war, announcement of cease-fire in 1948 and loss of land in 1965. "We could have bartered the soldiers on the Kashmir issue," Dhumal said.

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A major portion of hisspeech was dedicated to his experiences and incidents of his visit to families of Kargil martyrs. "For the first time, we have a PM who understands and speaks a soldiers’s language," Dhumal said. He claimed that families of 1971 war victims were still fighting for compensation. Dhumal also raised free demands, namely scrapping of system of RMP (Recruitable Male Population) for recruitment in the Army, creation of cantonments at Una and Hamirpur, and sanction of Rohtang tunnel.

Incidentally, all three are basically defence-related demands.

While Dhumal announced a proposal of building war memorials at state and district headquarters, the PM stated that it was time to channelise the post-war nationalist upsurge that has engulfed the nation towards nation-building and development. However, he added that the junoon was not created by us, but has erupted on its own all over the country.

Vajpayee also talked of greater defence preparedness during peacetime. He added that the defence budget which hadbeen "previously" reduced would be rectified.