Pledging support for a full-scale war against terror, opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the government must stop depending on Washington hoping that the United States will come to its rescue in tackling Pakistan-backed terrorism.
"Please stop running to mummy (US) hoping that somebody else will help the country to tackle terrorism," senior BJP leader Arun Shourie said initiating a discussion in the Rajya
Sabha on the recent terror attacks in Mumbai.
He said the government keeps pinning its hopes on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice coming to resolve the country's problems with regard to terrorism.
Asking the government to stop the peace process with Pakistan, he said: "Your intelligence record shows that the ISI is now knitting together Indian insurgent groups."
Observing that China was propping up Pakistan, Shourie said Islamabad was supporting terrorism and at the same time putting the onus of the peace process on New Delhi.
Advising the government to come out of self-denial, he said four days before the Mumbai terror strikes, the then home minister Shivraj Patil was taking consolation in the figures showing comparison of terrorist attacks during the NDA and the UPA governments.
Referring to coastal security, he said barring one, none of the remaining 35 islands in Lakshadsweep was properly staffed by intelligence agencies.
Noting that the country remained vulnerable because terrorist groups backed by the neighbouring country use high technology like Voice over Internet Protocol, he warned that in the next five years the terrorists would use non-conventional weapons like chemical and nuclear arms in miniature forms.
Shourie said the proxy war started by former Pakistan President Zia-ul Haq has kept India bleeding for 35 years with no damage to them.
Advising the government to judge Pakistan by the ground realities, he said" "Please do not go by joint statements that you sign with their leaders."
Rejecting the theory of using minimal force, Shourie said the government should go all out to win over the proxy war unleashed by Pakistan.
"Not an eye for an eye. But, for an eye, both eyes. For a tooth, the whole jaw," he said.
He observed that violence in Jammu and Kashmir had come down in the last one year because Pakistan was preoccupied with its own problems in troubled areas like Balochistan, the tribal belt and other places.
He asked the government to empower the proposed Federal Investigation Agency with adequate teeth.
Asking the government not to make it a prestige issue, he said if the UPA was "allergic" to POTA, it should bring changes in the National Security Act so that tough actions can be taken against terrorists.
Shourie said the entire country would support the government if it took effective and urgent steps to combat terrorism.
He reminded Chidambaram that if he failed to act sternly against terrorism, "this time it will not only the share prices that will come down, but the entire country would have been let down and exposed to greater danger".
