Thakre blames non-BJP forces for Gujarat strife

While giving a clean chit to the Sangh Parivar including the Bajrang Dal, Thakre assured that the guilty would be punished.

“Non-BJP parties, and not the VHP, are trying to politicise and blow up the issue to embarrass the Keshubhai Patel Government,” he said.

Thakre scotched speculations of a move within the party to destabilise the Gujarat Government by fomenting trouble for it and saidthe present administration was in full control of the law & order and that the government was “doing fine.”

But he also conceded that “incidents of atrocities on minorities hampered development.”

Thakre said Keshubhai Patel had vision of development of Gujarat and that the party had mass public support to implement plans.

The BJP president disagreed that the law & order situation was alarming.

“It isn’t very bad, there are problems but it is not alarming. Gujarat is a big state, there are problems,” he said when questioned about the Central leadership’s perception of the scenario in the State.

He said the BJP believed in harmony and protection for all and denying allegations that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS controlled the state.Short of words to explain the rise in vegetable prices and groundnut oil, and general inflation, he blamed it on the policies of the previous Congress Government at the Centre.

“Labourers are doomed because of the policies,” Thakre stated. Thakre,however, held the unpredictable monsoons last year responsible for vegetable price rise.

On the Jammu & Kashmir issue, Thakre said a solution was mired in the “Pakistani attitude”. Pakistan should realise that it is not in a position to fight India. “International powers do not want issues between India and Pakistan to be resolved,” he alleged.

“Pakistan is mistaking foreign powers as their friends whereas India is its true friend as it has blood relations with those across the border”, he stated. Asked whether cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries could solve the issue, he said such efforts would not go a long way.

Thakre exuded confidence that militancy would end soon in the Valley, but could not give a time-frame. “The BJP sees a ray of hope among the residents of the Valley who want it to be part of India. Earlier, it was very difficult to get information about the militants, now it is not so,”the BJP president added.

Arms training for J&K locals

NationalBJP chief Khushabhau Thakre has said plans were afoot to impart arms training to residents of Kashmir Valley. He reiterated that the J & K imbroglio could be solved only by sticking to the Shimla Agreement. He blamed previous governments for things getting out of control in the trouble-torn state.

He alleged that members of previous governments were so thick with the militants that the latter would know the next move even before action was taken. The BJP wanted to solve the problem peacefully but was “prepared for the worst”, he added.

He said confidence of the armed forces had been restored and the Pokhran test was a step in that direction. He said that India was not dependent on foreign aid, which contributed only 2 per cent to the country’s GDP of 26 per cent.