Muslims' role good augury, says Fernandes
ON BOARD SPECIAL IAF PLANE, July 25 (PTI) — Defence Minister George Fernandes has voiced "delight" over Muslim participation in organising largest-ever Amarnath yatra this year in Jammu and Kashmir ignoring threats from militant groups.
"I am delighted to see Muslim participation in the organisation of the yatra and I consider this as a very good augury", Mr Fernandes said talking to newsmen while returning to Delhi after paying obeisance at the 14,000-foot high cave shrine in Amarnath and reviewing the security arrangement made for the yatra.
Lauding the people for rejecting the threats from militants, he said the call for boycott of the yatra had been given by them to cause a communal divide.
"I consider this as a new and very positive development which shows that the confidence of the people in the J and K administration and security forces has gone up and now they defy the militant threats," he said.
Lt-Gen Krishan Pal, Corps Commander of 15 Corps of the Army, said till July 24, a total of 72,545 pilgrims had paid obeisance at the cave shrine of Lord Shiva and Parvati via the Baltal and Pahalgam routes and an estimated 1.4 lakh to 1.5 lakh people were likely to visit the cave till August 8, when the month-long yatra ends.
Mr Fernandes further said that the efforts from across the border to divide the Kashmiri people on the basis of religion had been beaten by the Muslims and in this the Army had played a "very substantial role" along with paramilitary forces and J and K police which is overwhelmingly Muslim.
Mr George Fernandes has said there were encouraging signs for post-Pokhran Indo-US relations and maintained that the fourth round of talks between New Delhi and Washington next month should lead to a thaw to the extent of accepting India as a nuclear weapon state and easing of sanctions.
The ongoing dialogue between Prime Minister’s special emissary, Jaswant Singh, and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is “moving in the right direction” and “there is softening of attitudes”, Fernandes said.
On sanctions, he said a number of US companies had declared that capital inflow to India would go on whether sanctions were lifted or not. Fernandes said New Delhi had made it clear to Washington that “there is no question of roll back of the nuclear weaponisation programme”.
On the issue of comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT), Fernandes said “complexities are on the US side which has lot to do with the weaponisation programme. They have certain ideas which are not acceptable to India”. He did not elaborate.
Asked if New Delhi, which declared a unilateral moratorium after the May nuclear tests, would conduct further blasts, he said “the scientists are very clear that whatever data was needed became available with the tests.
“The simple reason for this is that nuclear technology has gone very far in terms of sophistication as compared to the time when US conducted its first test followed by Russia, France and Britain and later by China,” he said.
To a question about western reports questioning whether India had actually carried out a thermo-nuclear blast on May 11, he asserted that India had exploded a “hydrogen bomb” on that day.
Asked if India would go ahead with test firing of a new version of intermediate range “Agni” ballistic missile with an extended strike range of over 2,500 km, Fernandes said “Parliament’s standing committee on defence has urged the government to go ahead with the programmes.
Asked about the command and control structure for nuclear weapons, Fernandes said a final decision in this regard would be taken by the proposed National Security Council which is expected to be set up shortly. “One thing is clear that the command and control will be in political hands”.
He said the Vajpayee government could not have gone ahead with the tests just after assuming office and maintained that previous governments had also given thought to these issues.
On being asked that about 40 per cent of the Army was at present involved in counter-insurgency measures, the minister favoured the Army to guard the borders instead of getting bogged down in combating internal disturbances.