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Journalism of Courage
The text of the statement issued after the meeting of BJP Parliamentary Board, central office-bearers and CMs of BJP-ruled states on party president L.K. Advani8217;s visit to Pakistan:
The Bharatiya Janata Party lauds the path-breaking visit to Pakistan by its president Shri L.K. Advani. The week-long tour has brought the people of India and Pakistan closer, helped remove a mountain of misunderstandings between them and taken the momentum of better relations to a new level, in continuance of the policy of friendship initiated by successive governments led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The warm and enthusiastic response Shri Advani8217;s visit elicited from both the officials and ordinary people of Pakistan proves the correctness of the NDA8217;s policy of pursuing good neighbourly ties between the two countries.
The BJP appreciates the Pakistan government8217;s invitation to Shri Advani to inaugurate the restored portion of the Katasraj temple, revered by all Hindus of the Indian sub-continent as a resting place of the Pandavas. The overwhelming response to his Katasraj visit could well go down as a turning point in removing long-held misgivings between the people of the two countries. The BJP hopes that Pakistan will progress further along this path and ensure that the rights of Hindus and other religious minorities are fully protected and that official initiatives to restore and develop other mandirs and gurudwaras continue in the future.
Shri Advani welcomed the event in Karasraj as a good beginning and in that context without describing Mr Jinnah as secular reminded the people of Pakistan of its founder8217;s address to the country8217;s Constituent Assembly in which he had urged full freedom of faith for all its citizens and no discrimination between its citizens on grounds of religion.
The BJP reiterates that whatever may have been Jinnah8217;s vision of Pakistan, the state he founded is theocratic and non-secular, the very idea of Hindus and Muslims being two separate nations is repugnant to it. The BJP has always condemned the division of India on communal lines and continues to steadfastly reject the two-nation theory championed by Jinnah and endorsed by British colonists. There can be no revisiting the reality that Jinnah led a communal agitation to achieve his goal of Pakistan, which devoured thousands of innocent people in its wake and dispossessed millions of their homes and livelihoods.
