In the ongoing war of words between India and Pakistan, it is now the turn of BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu to take on Islamabad. But the provocation has come from none other than Pakistan PM Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Jamali had alleged in Washington on Wednesday that the BJP was blocking ‘‘normalisation’’ of ties with Pakistan for ‘‘achieving better results in the next Lok Sabha elections’’.Joining issues with him, the BJP president said in a statement today: ‘‘It amounts to interference in India’s internal political affairs.’’ He maintained that ‘‘it is extraordinary for the Pakistan PM to comment on a political party in India.’’Naidu flayed Jamali over his charge that the BJP ‘‘made a good show’’ in last year’s Assembly elections in Gujarat in the wake of the ‘‘massacre of innocent Muslims’’. The BJP president saw an attempt ‘‘at inciting communal sentiments in India’’. He retorted ‘‘those who have no democracy and those who have wiped out minorities from their own country have no right to comment on a democratically elected government in an India state.’’He termed as ‘‘ludicrous, completely baseless and false,’’ the allegation that the BJP is coming in the way of normalisation of relations. Naidu pointed out that the initiative came from PM A.B. Vajpayee. If the process has been stalled, ‘‘the blame rests squarely with Pakistan,’’ which continues to ‘‘sponsor the campaign of terrorist killings in India’’.
