Speak in a single voice: BJP to UPA

Senior BJP leaders urged the PM and his Cabinet colleagues to speak in one voice and said India must consider all options without resorting to any hype, if Pak was not willing to take tough action against terrorists, reports Shekhar Iyer.

Senior BJP leaders led by LK Advani and Rajnath Singh on Tuesday urged the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues to speak in one voice and said India must consider all options without resorting to any hype, if Pakistan was not willing to take tough action against terrorists operating from its soil.

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They also demanded minority affairs minister AK Antulay be dropped for his remarks as taking a tough stand against Pakistan and “meekly surrendering before vote-bank politics domestically cannot go hand in hand.”

A resolution adopted at a meeting of the party’s national office-bearers said: “The compulsions of vote-bank politics has once again paralysed the Congress. If Dr Manmohan Singh cannot firmly deal with erring Cabinet minister Antulay, to what extent can he expected to deal firmly against terror.”

The BJP resolution said terrorism being aided, abetted and sponsored from across the border was an attack on India and couldn’t be defeated with in an “incomplete resolve”.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said the party thought the PM, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and defence minister AK Antony have been speaking in different voices.