Advani meets PM, focus on blasts, Amarnath protests

Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Thursday discussed the internal security situation in the country with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Thursday discussed the internal security situation in the country with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the aftermath of the multiple blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore. The Prime Minister had called Advani for the meeting wherein the latter is learnt to have questioned the Union Government’s “soft approach” in curbing terror attacks in the country.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said the internal security issue in the country and the Jammu unrest figured in the talks between the two leaders. While the PM was assisted by Home Minister Shivraj Patil and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, Advani was accompanied by BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley during the one-and-half-hour meeting.

“Jammu is on the boil and the issue figured in the talks. Advaniji stressed that the land transfer order had been issued only after the High Court’s nod and the unanimous approval of the state Cabinet. Yet the Congress-led state Government succumbed to separatists’ pressure. Advaniji said the land be restored to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board,” said Javdekar.

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In a related move, the BJP has planned a three-day protest on the issue in all state capitals, beginning August 11.

“All state units will stage dharna in front of respective Raj Bhavans on August 11, 12 and 13 and protest the revocation of the land transfer order,” said senior BJP leader

M Venkaiah Naidu here on Thursday. “We want the decision to revoke the land transfer to be scrapped immediately. We want that the land should be given back to the Amarnath Shrine Board.”

“It appears that the fundamentalists and extremists have prevailed in the revocation of the land transfer to the Amarnath Shrine Board. The land was to be transferred to the Board to provide facilities to pilgrims going to the shrine,” he said. A three-member panel was sent by party president Rajnath Singh to Jammu to assess the situation.

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Keeping up the party’s attack on the Government on the issue of Ram Sethu, Venkaiah said the Centre was “targeting the religious and cultural beliefs of Hindus”. “The Ram Sethu is one example where the Government had

not only hurt the religious sentiments but also denied the very existence of Lord Rama in the court,” he added.

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