Parliament Consultative Committe demands stringent action against Hizb

Home Minister L.K. Advani is believed to have skirted the issue by replying that the Centre had received no such proposal from the Government in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that it was the Ministry of External Affairs which will answer that question. He himself did not know the extent to which it will have an impact on Pakistan, he told the MPs.

Advani said the Government had urged the US to declare Pakistan a terrorist nation because the US has a law under which it can put nations on its states of concern list.

Last year, after the Kandahar hijacking, the Prime Minister’s Office had considered taking tough measures against Pakistan. It had contemplated the withdrawal of the Most Favoured Nation status applicable to Pakistan, the closure of the Indian mission in Islamabad and stopping the overflying of PIA planes over Indian territory. But this was shot down by the Ministry of External Affairs. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh was of the view that it was better to engage Pakistan than to take steps which could worsen the situation, and he had his way.

The Home Minister promised members of his Ministry’s consultative committee, which met here yesterday, that he would call a special meeting to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir soon. Some members had charged the Government of mishandling the situation which led to the withdrawal of the ceasefire offer by the Hizbul Mujahideen. Advani, on the other hand, claimed that the recent developments in Kashmir had exposed Pakistan before the international community and India, having expressed its readiness to talk to Hizb and other groups, stood to gain. According to sources, Congress leader Karan Singh has concurred with the Home Minister.

Interestingly, the background paper circulated by the Home Ministry to the members, highlights the differences in nuance that exist inside the Government — on the conditions under which it is prepared to talk to the militants.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has hinted at the talks being unconditional. He has repeatedly said that insaniyat (humanity) is the umbrella under which they could be held and that it did not matter if the militants talked outside the Constitution; the Government need not agree to what they demanded.

However, the background paper of the Home Ministr talks not just about the Constitution but also insists that the Government will talk only to those groups which give up violence. In a reply to a poser from Somnath Chatterji, the document said: “India will not deviate from its chosen course of talks with all those who eschew the path of terror and violence and simultaneous battle with with all those who continue to stick to that path.”

During the course of the meeting, Swaraj Kaushal warned the Government that it should keep its hands off the disputes between the different militant organisations in the troubled state. He also made a case for greater cooperation between Russia and India, as Moscow had enormous experience in fighting Mujahideen. He drew a similarity between the recent bomb blast in Srinagar with the one in a subway in Moscow.