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Advani promises end to Pak proxy war if BJP is returned to power

Union Home Minister L K Advani today vowed that if voted to power, the National Democratic Alliance government would wipe out Pakistan-sponsored proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing an election rally in Rehan, he said even if Osama bin Laden supported the ISI for carrying out militancy in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP-led government would curb it with a heavy hand. He said the BJP never wanted to make Kargil a poll issue and added that it was the Congress which did so. Lauding the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the Kargil conflict, Advani claimed that the Tashkent and Shimla agreements signed after the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars during the Congress governments had gone against the national interest. He said the Congress committed a blunder after the 1947 Pakistani invasion in Jammu and Kashmir by taking the Kashmir issue to the United Nations, on the advice of Lord Mountbatten. But for the blunder, one-third of Kashmir would not have been under Pakistan's ''illegal'' occupation, he said.

Advani said following the Tashkent agreement, India lost Haji Peer and Chamb areas. He, however, conceded that the Congress was doing well in the beginning as it had a good leadership but now the party was in ''bad shape'' because of "improper" leadership.

Referring to the foreign birth of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Advani congratulated Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar for raising their voice against her leadership. When an Indian-born Sonali, who married an Italian film maker and was now an Italian citizen, could not contest the municipal polls in Italy, how could Gandhi, born in Italy, become the prime minister of India, he asked.

Henry Kissinger, who was responsible for friendship and better relations between China and USA, could not become president or vice president of America because of being a German-born Jew, Advani said. He said the Congress had forced the elections on the country, but the elections would bring a positive mandate for the BJP, he claimed.

UNI

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