Shout out loud

T he editorial of the People’s Democracy takes a stern position against the BJP’s allegations that the Hyderabad attacks happened because the UPA had been indulging in minority appeasement or that if POTA had been repealed, these attacks would not have happened. It says that their reaction, “smacks of their partisan approach at a time when the country should stand united. During the Vajpayee-led NDA government’s rule of six years, many terrorist attacks have taken place. But on each occasion, despite the wide political divergences,everybody stood behind the government in meeting the challenge. Nobody knows this better than Advani, who while participating in the adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha, levelled such charges. Even when POTA adorned our statute books, such attacks took place. During the NDA rule, the parliament was attacked, the Red Fort was attacked, the Raghunath temple was attacked twice, the Akshardam terrorist attack claimed many lives etc. Are we to believe that all these attacks took place because of the Vajpayee government’s minority appeasement? It is, indeed, ironic that such charges are being levelled when a glance at the list of the dead in this tragedy at Hyderabad shows that a number of minority community people fell victims to the terrorist attacks. As we have repeatedly stated, terrorism knows no religion.”

Nuclear facade

The CPI(M) continues to attack the nuclear deal. It states in an article in the People’s Democracy that “If we take nuclear energy as a fraction of the total primary energy needs of the country, we find that this is not more than 3 per cent to 5 per cent of our total primary energy basket (the 5 per cent to 9 per cent of the electrical energy translates to 3 per cent to 5 per cent in primary energy terms). If we look at oil and gas, even with an ambitious nuclear energy programme, they will still constitute more than 30 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, and together more than 40 per cent of our future energy needs. More than 40 per cent of our energy needs in the future is going to come from oil and gas — and this, independent of our nuclear energy programme.”

It does believe that India needs to keep the nuclear option open, but to present the nuclear deal “as a panacea for our current energy requirements flies in the face of reality,” it says.

Compiled by Jayanth Jacob