BJP discovers ‘neighbourly’ Pak

For a change, the BJP is not calling for war against Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks and has instead asked the government to bring international pressure on the neighbour.

The reason could be the general election that is only months away, sources said.

A statement issued after the BJP’s core committee meeting here tonight was shorn of pet phrases such as “hot pursuit” and did not sound like the party at all.

It condemned Pakistan for using terror as an instrument of state policy but didn’t call for military action, not even air strikes to destroy militant training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The BJP requested Pakistan to abandon the “perilous road” of confrontation and “observe at least an elementary code of neighbourly conduct”. The statement said: “To Pakistan, we say: Do not please violate the commitment of January 6, 2004, also of all the UN resolutions and international opinions on terrorism.”

The polite appeal came from a party that has in the past threatened to teach Pakistan a lesson at the slightest provocation. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had talked of “aar-paar ki larai” and sent troops to the border. “Hot pursuit” has for years been the favourite phrase of L.K. Advani, who hopes to become Prime Minister in 2009.

BJP leaders Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie today justified the restraint, saying military options could not be talked about in news conferences. They said the “nationalist” BJP would stand by the government if it took “stern steps to ensure that Pakistan desists from jihadi terrorism.”

But at a time the national mood is jingoistic, the BJP’s caution is surprising. While there is a view that the six-year stint in government has made the party more responsible, another explanation is that the party is afraid any military action will hurt it in the election.

The party believes in this atmosphere of public anger, a military strike on terror camps would only benefit the ruling Congress.

With the general election due in months, this is not something the BJP would want.

That the party has polls on its mind was given away by this paragraph in the resolution: “The BJP believes that the ultimate solution only lies with the people: they must ensure that power rests in the hands of persons who will always place the interests of our country above all else, who will never barter them for electoral gains.”

BJP president Rajnath Singh, who often sounds more strident than his party on every issue, also spoke of the need to bring international pressure on Pakistan.

Source: SANJAY K. JHA-The Telegraph

Poor Acharya

One question I’m dying to ask Dr V.S. Acharya

The sort of disrepute Shivaraj Patil has brought the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in four years, V.S. Acharya has brought the BJP government in Karnataka in four months flat. The mumbling, fumbling, blogging home minister has been caught with his pants down so many times in the fledgling days of the B.S. Yediyurappa government, it beggars belief.

When farmers were protesting fertiliser shortages, the god-fearing physician from Udupi was blissfully doing a whirlwind tour of temples and mutts. When BJP MLA Raghupati Bhat’s wife Padmapriya Bhat was “half-kidnapped”, Acharya was dropping red herrings that she was suffering from”temporary depression” and that “she would be re-united with her family in matter of hours” only to report the young woman’s murky death a few hours later.

The curfew on live music and the disenchantment over the transfers of police officers even among BJP legislators have all shown up Acharya to be a comical Sancho Panza tilting at the windmills of competence while his chief minister promises “good governance” with a scowl.

However, none of those fleeting brushes with infamy come close to Dr Acharya’s mind-numbing performance in the week gone by, when Karnataka’s well-earned reputation as a peaceful, civilised State has been dealt a killer-blow by the Hindutva Hitsquads.

When the State was looking for a statesman when churches and prayer halls were attacked on the West Coast by the Bajrang Dal, Dr Acharya was happy to play partisan politics, linking it to the conversion debate, as if it is not the State’s business (and his job description) to protect the lives, property and freedoms of all citizens, irrespective of their community, even if they are converts from Hinduism. And now, his inability to quell further attacks on churches in Bangalore today, a day after the Centre invoked Article 355.

What is the one question you are dying to ask Dr V.S. Acharya? “Doctor, heal thyself?

Source:Churmuri.com

PM announces Rs 1,000 cr package for Bihar-Did he get approval from USA

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday described the floods in Bihar as a “national calamity” and announced an immediate financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for rescue and relief operations. Ultimately our Pm has got an approval from the Big Boss to give 1000 crore to the people of Bihar.

The Prime Minister did an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, some Union Ministers and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Can't they do land survey, you need to understand the ground reality.

“If there is a need for more, we will give more,” he told media. Thanks singhji, I can see some sort of courage in your voice and hope this will remain “We would like to assure the people of Bihar that all India will support them through this difficulty.”

“I thank him for the help provided by the Centre,” Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said appealing for ‘generous help’ from all quarters. Why the thanks, this is the bound duty of the every govt to look after the affected people of this country.

“We have nothing to cook with so we are soaking grain into this filth and trying to survive,” Yadav, a farmer, but don't worry Nuclear deal will solve all the problem.

The district’s tiny rail station was packed on Thursday with thousands of flood victims desperate to get on one of the few passenger trains still operating.

“We just want to get out. We want to leave this curse behind,” wept Girija Prasad, a housewife whose husband, Narayan, is missing. She was rescued by a military motorboat on Wednesday.

“About 90,000 victims have been evacuated by government rescue agencies,” disaster management official told.

And some people helped themselves, such as the inmates of Birpur Jail in Supaul district. Taking advantage of the flood, a number of prisoners escaped. But four of them returned later. Life in jail was better.