We want strategic ties with US but no cap on tests: Advani

“Pokharan I happened during Indira Gandhi’s regime. Pokharan II happened during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure. There should also be a scope for Pokharan III in the country,” he said, after releasing a compilation of presidential addresses of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in the 1951-75 period.

Stressing that the party’s nuclear vision was not limited to energy alone (an argument being driven home by the Congress), he said the Jana Sangh wanted a nuclear India way back in 1964, after the Chinese invasion in 1962.

Advani devoted his entire speech to a “strong, resurgent India”. “The country was fortunate to have a Home Minister in Sardar Patel who made sure that the princely states were integrated, and the country stayed united,” he said.

Linking the theme to Kashmir, where Mookerjee attained martyrdom after fighting for the integration of the state into the country, the senior leader expressed surprise over the disinformation campaign being spread over the Amarnath Yatra. “I went for the yatra last week. I was surprised by reports that the yatra had been stopped, and that there was a stampede, killing nine people.”

Advani recounted a bevy of pilgrims complaining that only the Army was helping them. There have been reports that the PDP, an alliance partner in the state Government, has been creating trouble and indulging in scare-mongering to keep pilgrims away from the state. “While the Chief Minister and the Congress were being helpful, the same could not be said of others,” said the BJP leader, hinting at the PDP’s role in engineering the crisis.

He also said while one governor made the Vaishno Devi shrine (in the Jammu region) “a model to be emulated by others”, another governor “made similar arrangements for the Amarnath shrine (in the Valley)”. Both these governors were appointed during the NDA regime. “This (the controversy over the Amarnath yatra) is not what Mookerjee sacrificed his life for,” said the BJP leader.

He repeated the charge that the “Congress-led Government at the Centre was in ICU” and that “there was a lot of discontent in the party after a series of electoral reverses”.

Advani said the crisis at the Centre was due to the coming together of ideologically-disparate alliances. “Two ideologically different parties had come together to form the Government and we could see the resulting chaos,” he said, referring to the UPA-Left tug of war on the Indo-US nuclear deal.