Chandigarh: In the absence of a conducive environment, India should not show any "hurry" to hold talks with Pakistan when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits New York later this month, BJP president Rajnath Singh said on Monday.
He also said the government was not responding to repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the manner it should and not building enough international pressure against it to force it to desist from such activities.
"This month, the Prime Minister is going to New York. There are reports that he could meet his Pakistani counterpart there. I want to ask the PM that when there is no conducive environment, why should there be any hurry for talks?
He said the Prime Minister should clarify to the people what message the government intends to give to Pakistan if the talks are held.
"What message they (govt) want to give, the country needs a clarification from the Prime Minister. Because, when Mumbai terror attack happened, he had said at that time that no talks will be held with Pakistan till it acts against those involved in terror activities," the BJP chief said while addressing a press conference here.
Singh arrived here last evening on a two-day visit and held meetings with party`s core groups of northern states -- Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
He said the government was not responding to repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan in the manner it should.
"I am not saying that war is the only option...Why the government is not exercising its option to build diplomatic and international pressure? There are reports that there is pressure by some third force, which is why the government does not want to act. The Prime Minister should give some clarification in this regard," he demanded.
He said internal and external security crises were increasing.
"Our image is that of a soft state...Be it terrorism, be
it recent incidents involving Pakistan and China on our borders, the general impression is that the government has not responded in the manner it ought to have," Singh said.
"We don`t have a concrete policy to deal with terrorism... Pakistan has more than 100 times done ceasefire violations. After victory in the Kargil war (during NDA rule), Pakistan never indulged in firing incidents on our borders, which is being repeated now.
"The cold-blooded killings of our jawans on LoC by Pakistan is a recent example, but you must have seen the way government should have responded, it has not chosen to do so," he claimed.
The BJP leader said there are reports that the government was trying to dilute the nuclear liability clause in deals with American nuclear firms for buying reactors.
"You must have recently read, that US nuclear reactor companies are being invited to set up nuclear reactors. The government is trying to dilute the nuclear liability clause so that the US companies when they come here, will not even need to seek permission of the Atomic Energy Commission.
"We keep telling the government to apprise our countrymen about all this, but they don`t feel the need to do so," he said.
Earlier, he lashed out at the UPA, saying the country was facing crisis on economic, internal and external security and diplomatic front.
"The Congress-led UPA has taken country`s economy to ICU, Indian currency is on ventilator, dollar is on escalator and domestic investors are on runway and our unemployed are on highway, in a nutshell that`s how one can best describe the situation of our country at the moment," he had said.
PTI
