The Hindu : National : Advani slams Manmohan statement

I could not believe that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lost sleep thinking of (families of) Indians who were involved in London-Glasgow terror plot. Dr. Manmohan Singh told reporters that he could not sleep all night after seeing the mother of the two Indians break down on television. When I read comments made by the UPA Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, I felt that UPA government is being run by a King who is surrounded by cronies and has no idea what is happening in the outside world.

These statements by Dr. Manmohan Singh expressing sympathy with Indians accused of terrorism in Australia and U.K. raise serious doubt about India's commitment to war on terror. By expressing sympathies with the families of Indians accused of terror, Dr. Manmohan Singh has hurt the sentiments of thousands of victims of terrorism in India and abroad. I am afraid that these statements by Dr. Singh have also hurt the feelings of the loved ones of hundreds of Indian soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in Kashmir. It is my hope that these statements by Dr Singh do not represent the views of over one billion Indian people.

I do not believe that Indians have forgotten the fact that two of their Prime Ministers were victims of terrorism. It may not matter to Dr. Manmohan Singh but it does matter to us and we will not allow terrorists to change our way of life. If any section of society feels discriminated against or left out, they have a right to use full democratic process and seek justice. There is no justification for using bombs against democracies.

Mr. Prime Minister, where are you living these days? Who has been briefing you on the world affairs? It is high time that you fire your staff and hire some non-chamcha people who can tell you what has been happening in the world. I know this in my heart that your UPA coalition has no respect for the law. Here are some examples :-

(1) Once upon a time one your Cabinet Minister went into hiding to evade arrest on criminal charges.
(2) One of your Ministers has visited a convicted criminal in a Bihar jail.
(3) One of your MP reportedly told the media that the Court might have made a mistake while finding actor Salman Khan guilty of a crime in Jodhpur.
(4) Your Left allies in West Bengal did nothing to prevent Nandigram massacre.

Your statement showing sympathy for the families of Indians accused of terrorism shows your insensitivity towards the human values and the laws of United Kingdom. Mr. Prime Minister please find some time during the day (so that you don not lose your sleep) to think of victims of terrorism in Kashmir, 9/11, 7/11, and 1993 blasts. You are the Prime Minister of whole India not just a group of Indians. Please step up to the plate and deliver tough stance on anti-terrorism efforts. If you keep giving oxygen to terrorists they will come back to harm more people of our civilized society.

Mr. Prime Minister if you are seriously interested in friendship with America, please support us on war on terror and do not provide life systems to the terrorists. If you have decided to have sympathy for terrorists, we will have difficulty with our friendship.

Please take a lesson from your "Partner in Peace" General Mussharaf. No one knows better than him that promoting or supporting terrorists is like writing script for future terrorist attacks.

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Here is an article that was published in the Economic Times on July 11, 2007:

Printed from



Sleepless in South Block
11 Jul, 2007, 0116 hrs IST,P R Ramesh, TNN

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his minders in the Congress have been known to pander to the minority community with extraordinary indulgence. Last week, the world sat and watched with horror — and then relief — at the botched terror attacks in Glasgow. A couple of days later, while interacting with a group of women journalists in the Capital, he had said he couldn’t sleep. What caused insomnia was not TV clips of the jeep attack on the Scottish airport but the visuals of the distraught mother of the Bangalore boys allegedly involved in the UK terror plot.

The dry-eyed, who have been opposing the PM’s tendency to bend to the will of grievance-mongers and bleeding heart liberals have rightly reminded Dr Singh that he never talked about sleeplessness when gun-wielding, RDX-strapped jihadis attack innocent men, women and children in J&K and other parts of the country. He did not lose sleep when jihadis bombed trains in Mumbai; instead he waxed eloquent about preserving the spirit of the Mumbaikars. When police under the Congress’ charge rounded up members of Tabligh-e-Jamaat for the involvement of hardline community elements in the attack on the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, his government’s leaders were advising the media to avoid hot-button terms like Islamic radicalism and militant jihadism. And when militants exploded bombs in a Delhi theatre, Dr Singh was presiding over a meeting to recommend to President A P J Abdul Kalam an illegal proposal to dissolve the Bihar assembly.

Naturally, questions are now being asked as to why the PM is indulging in this spectacle of “sensitivity” over the distraught family of the Glasgow bomber. If the attempt was to melt hearts, he has failed in the project miserably. For the discerning, there is nothing wise or compassionate in the PM’s efforts. They fear that it will be seen as the willingness of the ruling side to pander to hardline Islamic opinion. And there is revulsion over the glaring disregard for recent history and a strong feeling that we cannot permit political correctness to keep us from self-preservation.

The PM’s reflexes are not surprising as the regime presided over by him is suicidally persisting with the call for sympathy and the root causes that fuel violence. Even when the men who are tasked with protecting the lives of citizens argue for a new strategy to tackle members of the community who have been infected by the virus of Wahhabism, the itch is to act as public relations agents of liberals. It will affect inter-community relations is the constant refrain.

But anyone with common sense knows that it’s a flawed and dangerous approach. The involvement of the Bangalore boys in the UK terror plot explains the extent of the problem. It has demolished the myth that no Indian can be a member of a militant Islamic group. It also begs the question: why the Bangalore boys, brought up in well-to-do families, just can’t wait to die for the cause of religion. Why do they share the brotherhood’s concern for trans-national grievances such as “Israeli aggression”, “anti-Arab racism” and hatred for the west?


The government’s “commitment to tolerance” has been prompting it to look the other way when a sustained effort is made here to establish the hold of political Islam. Tabligh-e-Jamaat — the same group that indoctrinated the Bangalore boys — have been making a serious attempt to drive home the point that Islam has a different nuance than the rest of India. The ongoing investigations into Kafeel and Sabeel’s past have shown that they actively participated in Tabligh’s protests against Muslims following the customs followed by the rest of the community.

This is not the first time that the government has come across the rising influence of Tabligh. There was clear evidence to suggest that Barelvis were the target of Tabligh’s attack in Malegaon. Barelvis are considered inferior as they persist with “un-Islamic’ practices like ‘Shab-e-Barat’ involving visiting and lighting of candles at mazaars — a custom opposed by puritanical sects like Ahl-e-Hadis from which Lashkar-e-Taiba, Tabligh-e-Jamaat and Deobandis draw their inspiration. The Andhra Pradesh police, which investigated the Mecca Masjid blasts, have also pointed to the role of Wahhabis in the attack. The state administration publicised the involvement of Wahhabis in the blast.

All these point to the need to stop mindless violence in its tracks. The much-publicised insomnia is already being seen as overindulgence of a misplaced complaint that the entire community is being labelled as terrorists. And that will only send an impression that Islamists have made incredible progress in their efforts to play upon the grievance theory. Dr Singh insulates himself from the reality that the rest of us have to live with. May be, it would do the country some good if he skips some sleep and burns the midnight oil to find ways to end the dangerous vacillation on security issues. It may even help him get popular endorsement which he will desperately need less than two years from now.

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