Kargil will be poll issue : Kushabhau

| 06 July 1999 21:41 IST

With the battle in Kargil region coming to an end now, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is planning to make it an issue for yet another internal battle - the coming Lok Sabha elections, slated to be held by September end.

"Not only Kargil, but everything that is being done by the BJP for the welfare of the country, would be made a poll issue", categorically stated party president Kushabhau Thakre here. He was in Goa to attend one-day state executive meeting.

At the same time, he accused the Congress for making Kargil the election issue while the Indian soldiers were fighting on the battlefield to save our country. "They even tried to demoralise our armymen by raising unnecessary issues", he alleged.

While evading reply to why the intruders were allowed to cross the Line of Control, Thakre went on praising his party government for its successful foreign strategy as well as internal strategy. "There was no financial crisis and not even need to declare emergency", he pointed out.

Unlike in the past, Thakre said prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had succeeded in not losing on the battlefield as well as across the table. "He did not go to USA on Bill Clinton’s invitation but remained firm on resolving the issue bilaterally", he added.

He once again denied the allegation that the Lahore bus trip was a failure. On the contrary, he feels it made several countries change their hostile approach towards India on Indo-Pak issue. "It helped us in getting support of the whole world, including the Muslim countries", he claims.

While putting forward all these arguments before the electorate, Thakre hints at the party strategy to hit out at the Congress, making issue of its behaviour during the war. The elections would now be held in time and the voters would give a fitting reply to the Congress, he feels.

Though he called it a ‘happy day’ for India as Pakistan had agreed to withdraw from the battlefield due to international pressure, he however admits that the government has to be alert till the last infiltrator is driven out. "We cannot trust Pakistan", he says.

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