Vajpayee's Hindutva Dream....ALL of Kashmir for INDIA

[Mr Xtreme]

Vajpayee again asks Pakistan to 'vacate' Kashmir

source: News International

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday reiterated New Delhi's latest demand that talks with Pakistan would hinge on an end to Islamabad's control of parts of divided Kashmir.

"The only agenda for talks on Kashmir with Pakistan will be the return of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) to India,"

the Indian prime minister was quoted as saying at an election rally in Panipat, a town which adjoins New Delhi.

"Pakistan says Kashmir is the main issue. We say talks with Pakistan can take place only when Pakistan vacates Kashmir as the people of Jammu and Kashmir have always been with India,"

Vajpayee told his supporters in Panipat.

Vajpayee also asserted Pakistan had been "defeated both in battle and diplomacy" during a full-scale military conflict that erupted in Kashmir's Kargil zone three months after Vajpyee's Lahore trip, in February last year. "Pakistan does not seem to have learned the lessons from the conflict," Vajpayee said.

Vajpayee's demand, the second in two days, is so far the most stringent Indian pre-condition for the restoration of peace talks, which broke down last May during the Kargil battle.

Meanwhile, Atal Behari Vajpayee accused Pakistan of derailing the peace process initiated one year ago, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said. Vajpayee's remarks came a day after Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar proposed to India that the peace process be re-launched. PTI did not indicate that Vajpayee referred in his remarks to Sattar's proposal and it was not immediately clear if the Indian prime minister was rejecting the idea. There has been no other Indian reaction yet to the Pakistani bid to re-launch talks.

In an interview with Reuters Television on the eve of the first anniversary of the summit between Pakistan and India, Sattar urged India to implement commitments which Pakistan says New Delhi made in the Lahore Declaration. The minister said Pervaiz Musharraf's government would join the process honestly and sincerely.

PTI quoted Vajpayee as saying at the Haryana election rally on Sunday that Pakistan had "dashed the hand of friendship when exactly this day a year ago the bus journey was undertaken". PTI quoted the Indian prime minister as saying that Pakistan had sowed the seeds of distrust and suspicion by intruding Kargil.

[Mr Xtreme]

Vajpayee's Hindutva rantings follow a similar speech last week:

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Sunday ruled out the
possibility of holding a referendum in disputed Kashmir to decide its future and warned
New Delhi will strive to unite the divided state.

"We do not accept the Muslim majority state argument," the United News of India (UNI)
quoted Vajpayee as saying in the northern town of Jalandhar in frontier Punjab state.
"India has more Muslims than Pakistan's population," the Hindu nationalist prime minister said. "India belongs to all and we will not allow another partition of the country."
Vajpayee said he had also stated this to deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif when they
met in Lahore last year following a historic bus ride by the Indian premier.
Vajpayee said New Delhi disagreed with the 1947 British-sponsored partition of the
sub-continent into India and Pakistan on sectarian grounds. "Muslims are spread all over
India though they may be more in (the state of) Jammu and Kashmir."

Vajpayee said his Hindu nationalist-led coalition government would strive to restore
Kashmir's pre-partition status of an undivided territory and hold it under Indian control.
"We will not rest until the remaining part of Kashmir is secured. How can India leave
Kashmir when its people had joined India on their own free will...Do we have to educate
the world about it?

"We will talk of the one third of Kashmir occupied by Pakistan because it belongs to
India...The whole of Jammu and Kashmir is of India,"

the premier said in his hard-hitting
address. "I am asked (why) we have been fighting for 50 years, until when will we go on
fighting? I tell them we will fight until we are alive, until we win."

"Pakistan is getting exposed in the world about its hand in sponsoring terrorism. We are
mobilising world opinion even while preparing our defences," Vajpayee said.
He described the Kargil battle, in which more than 1,000 combatants died on both sides,
as a military defeat for Islamabad and said Pakistan had suffered more casualties than
India in the fighting that flared in May last year.

"Like the defeat in Bangladesh, Kargil too is pricking Pakistan's heart," he said.
Vajpayee threatened a retaliatory strike against Pakistan if Islamabad unleashed nuclear
weapons on New Delhi. "We have always said we are for no-first use of nuclear
weapons."

"But if somebody uses it against us, we will not refrain from doing so," he said. "We
cannot just keep quiet while such weapons are used against us."
The United News of India quoted Vajpayee as saying, "if Pakistan thought that it could
destroy India by a nuclear bomb, it was grossly mistaken." Vajpayee said India "could
retaliate and retaliate massively

[ehsan]

Come on Xtreme, there is no restriction on dreams, even if they are silly and bordering on madness. Vajpayee has a habit of

[sabah]

>>We have always said we are for no-first use of nuclear weapons.<<
That’s not what they said last week. War hysteria hmmm… the man has very lively imagination, perfect for Indian movies.

Re. Bangla Desh, It’s amazing that India keeps bringing up 1971 war and at same time asks Pakistan to stop it’s diplomatic and moral support to Kashmiri mujahedeen. Mr. Vaajpaye seems to be forgetting one essential aspect of the Kashmir dispute, the Kashmiris.

As for POK, yeah Lahore se hote hue aaeiN ge shayed.


[This message has been edited by sabah (edited February 21, 2000).]

[BombayKid]

But this has been India's position all along, so you guys shouldn't be surprised. I think it's good that a hardline approach is being taken now since we're dealing with the likes of Harkat. Pehele apne "HarkatoN" say baaz aaye, phir baat kareN

As far as Bangladesh is concerned, Yahya Khan had boasted that he would give Calcutta to the East Pakistanis. Indira Gandhi had openly said that if the refugee influx doesnot stop then India will support the freedom movement and had also asked the world powers to stop the rantings of Yahya Khan. Inspite of all warnings he did not stop, so we had to stop him and humiliate his troops who were hell bent on getting into West Bengal. We did it openly in the full knowledge of the world. If you're supporting the Kashmiri groups with weapons and arms, then be brave and say it openly !

[Mr Xtreme]

Bombaykid

One thing I have noticed about all you Indians is that despite all the evidence to point to the hindutva agenda of your govt in India, you are still keen to back them up rather than criticise them like the artists such as Deepa Mehta and Shabana Azmi (amongst others) have done.

I think you people are about as secular as the BJP govt. Be warned though. Fighting talk is ok, but but when it comes to the reality on the ground, the muslim belief in shahadat, which only comes through sincerity and genuine belief, is hard to beat.

Yes I know that chemical weapons and nuclear technology could wipe out all shaheeds but they also have that capability so you now have to step carefully, unlike in the past. In Afghanistan a million people died as a result of the use of napalm. But the war was still won.

These days it is cluster bombs which are used to inflict maximum damage with little cost. But can you take it as well as you dish it out? the technology is not that complicated

[BombayKid]

Mr. Xtreme,
There is no hidden agenda -- what is there is out in the open. Everyone knows about the issues close to the BJP, so its no secret. Are those issues anti-Muslim (or minorities) -- I don't think so. Then again, this is my opinion and maybe I am not a secular person (like you so casually suggested).
As far as the Deepa Mehta case is concerned, I'll say it once again that I condemn the UP state government's action. They were WRONG !! So lets see what happens after two weeks when the ban is lifted. I also accept that there are extremist elements in the BJP, in the same way there were Muslim fundamentalists within the Congress or the Janata Dal.
As far as war is concerned, I hope we never ever have another war. But we have our own views regarding Kashmir and we'll always protect our interests. If someone is hostile towards our nation then we can't be expected to keep quiet, we'll definitely retaliate -- any self-respecting nation would do that. What do you expect ?

[This message has been edited by BombayKid (edited February 21, 2000).]