Jaipur, Nov 21: Brushing aside Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's statement on Friday opposing Pakistani cricketers playing on Indian soil, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today declared that no organisation or individual would be allowed to `obstruct' the team while playing in the country.Talking to mediamen here, he emphasised that the Government would see to it that the Pakistani cricket team was able to play without hindrance during its proposed tour of India. The Prime Minister's assertion came a day after the Sena chief reiterated his threat of not allowing the Pakistani team to play in the country and ordered his sainiks to take necessary steps in this regard. Echoing the Prime Minister's statement, Home Minister L K Advani also denounced the Sena chief's announcement, and said he would discuss the issue with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde.Commenting on the row in Bhopal, Advani declared that he was totally against the linking of sports with politics, and said sports, art andculture should not be linked with politics either at the national level or at the international level.The issue has led to a fresh row between the Shiv Sena and BJP in Maharashtra, the ruling alliance partners in the State. Munde, who belongs to the BJP and is also the State Home Minister, has said that the alliance Government would take all steps to ensure that the Pakistani But his assurance was brushed aside by Thackeray, who had asserted that the Sena-led Government would do nothing of the kind to facilitate the Pakistani team as Islamabad was encouraging terrorist violence in the country.Meanwhile, West Bengal's Left Front Government today stressed that it would welcome the Pakistani cricketers in a `big way'.``We welcome the Pakistan cricket team to play in Calcutta. We will organise the match in a big way. We will see who dares to create disturbances here,'' State Home (Police) Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya told newspersons in Calcutta.Dubbing Thackeray's statement as a `new brand ofneo-fascism', Bhattacharya said ``I feel ashamed over his statement. It is my misfortune that he is my compatriot''.``It is true that the Pakistan Government is `anti-Indian' and its intelligence agency ISI is also interfering in Kashmir and abetting fundamentalist forces in India. But we should never equate the Pakistan Government with its people who are our friends'', Bhattacharya, also a CPI(M) central committee member, said.``Moreover, we do not have anything against the Pak cricketers. What have they done against our country''? he asked.Sena chief takes a dig at PMA day after he threatened to disrupt the coming tour of the Pakistani cricket team to India, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray tonight reacted with sarcasm to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's statement that his Government would ensure there was no obstruction to Pak cricketers.Thackeray said, ``I am glad that the Prime Minister has made the statement today as Pakistanis would improve their behaviour, stop massacres inJammu and Kashmir by its extremists and the ISI agents would go back to Lahore and Karachi.''Thackeray said, ``Once the extremists and ISI subversives go back to Pakistan, then displaced Kashmiri Pandit families can safely return to their homelands.''``Vajpayee's statement would no doubt even make absconding underworld don Dawood Ibrahim feel repentant and ashamed that he sent arms, ammunition and RDX to India,'' the Sena chief remarked.
