New Delhi, September 25
The BJP president, Mr Rajnath Singh, today asked the Centre to desist from going ahead with the Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) with Pakistan unless it stopped “encouraging terrorism” against India.

Talking to newspersons, Mr Rajnath Singh rubbished the Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s claim in his book, “In the Line of Fire: A Memoir,” that the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was aware of the army plan in Kargil before he hosted his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the “Lahore bus yatra” in March, 1999.

“The whole world knows who fought the Kargil conflict and nobody will take his words on the face value,” Mr Rajnath Singh observed.

In power during the 1999 Kargil operations, Mr Rajnath Singh called the conflict a diplomatic and military victory for India as he rejected Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s remarks in his book that the conflict contributed to initiatives on the Kashmir issue.

The BJP chief insisted that the then Vajpayee government successfully convinced the international community about Pakistan’s support to cross-border terrorism after the Kargil events.

“All his claims are baseless. On the contrary, the Vajpayee government made it known to the world after the 1999 events that Pakistan was responsible for cross-border terrorism and was a centre of terror,” he said.

Accusing the Pakistani leader of lying about the outcome of the Kargil conflict, insisting Islamabad lost both militarily and diplomatically in the conflict, Mr Rajnath Singh said , “The truth of the matter is Pakistan lost while India won. It was also a diplomatic victory for India when the world came to know about Pakistan’s role in encouraging terror.”

Mr Rajnath Singh said New Delhi should suspend CBMs with Islamabad until it dismantled terror infrastructure on its soil.

He also found fault with the way the Indian Government dealt with the issue of terrorism. “It is not getting the due weightage it deserves at the hands of the UPA coalition,” he said.

Stating that Kargil was a victory for India and a defeat for Pakistan, the BJP president said the Pakistan General should not be believed at all.

Mr Rajnath Singh said former US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott had openly accepted that India had earned world recognition as a responsible and reliable country after it reclaimed lost territories in Kargil and conducted the Pokhran II tests.

He alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, by conceding that Pakistan is also a victim of terror and recognising the existence of an autonomous group, had hurt India’s views on cross-border terrorism and termed Dr Manmohan Singh’s stance a “sell-out.”