General can146;t be trusted: Advani

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has expressed lack of faith in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and made it clear that India would do w...

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has expressed lack of faith in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and made it clear that India would do whatever necessary to put an end to cross-border terrorism unleashed by Islamabad.

8216;8216;I don8217;t trust President Musharraf, but I have confidence in our foreign policy and our capacity to make the world realise that if a country is spreading terrorism, international opinion should be very clear about it,8217;8217; he told RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya in an interview.

If Pakistan doesn8217;t not change its attitude, Advani said, 8216;8216;India will do whatever has to be done.8217;8217; However, he pointed out that these steps cannot be disclosed in advance.

He recalled that during the Agra summit, Musharraf was not prepared to admit that what was going on in J-K was terrorism. He instead insisted upon calling it a 8216;8216;freedom struggle.8217;8217; Advani did not make much of the demand for more autonomy for J-K as long as it was for decentralisation of power. However, he ruled out a return to the pre-1953 status enjoyed by the state.

Answering a question on his re-designation as Deputy Prime Minister, Advani said that it would strengthen his position to take decisions. Earlier, he used to do certain things because he enjoyed the confidence of the PM and the party. Now, 8216;8216;this confidence has been formalised.8217;8217;

Advani said that he often heard that he had a position in BJP but not in the NDA. There was also much propaganda about the 8216;8216;differences8217;8217; between him and Vajpayee. In order to put an end to this talk, Vajpayee decided to re-designate him.

He admitted that a leader 8216;8216;with a certain line of thinking8217;8217; had his limitations. The concurrence of NDA partners to the move to elevate him despite his image of a Hindutva hardliner was therefore significant.

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He said that when he had announced Vajpayee8217;s name for prime ministership in 1996, he did not do so because he was senior. He did so because he felt that 8216;8216;in a country like India, he would be more acceptable.8217;8217;

He said that the Hindutva concept had been 8216;8216;in a way8217;8217; approved by a Supreme Court decision. Even Congress leader Vasant Sathe recently said that nothing would be better than accepting the definition of Hindutva propounded by Veer Savarkar, he said.

He attributed criticism of Hindutva protagonists to the influence of Nehru and the Marxists.