Modi prefers playing dove, as BJP takes hawkish line on Pak

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech at the BJP Council meeting at Kozhikode on Sunday evening largely skirted the issue of terror, it was left to party president Amit Shah and former party president Nitin Gadkari to drum up the anti-Pakistan tune, set by Modi earlier at a public meeting on Saturday. Experts, however, point out that despite the rhetoric there was little chance of deviation in government’s position of strategic restraint.

The two-day BJP Council meeting to commemorate the centenary of party ideologue and founding leader Deendayal Upadhyay concluded on the note of communal reconciliation on the domestic front, as brought out by Modi, but keeping the pressure on Pakistan on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, as underlined by other leaders. Delivering the presidential address earlier in the day, BJP chief Amit Shah lashed out at Pakistan for terror activities in the country. He said, Pakistan was backing terrorism and India will take all efforts to fight out terrorism from the country.

Delineating the party line on the issue, Shah said, Kashmir was an integral part of India and no one could separate it. He added that the Centre was ready for talks in the state but only with those who abide by the Constitution. Later union minister and former BJP president Nitin Gadkari introduced a special resolution deploring the terror attack on army men by the Pak-sponsored terrorists.

The resolution which was widely discussed on the party forum before being adopted echoed the same sentiments as spelled out by Modi a day earlier in the public meeting and reiterated once again on Sunday by the Prime Minister at his monthly radio programme Maan Ki Baat. Modi began the talk by paying respect to the 18 martyrs and said that he wanted to emphasise what he had said earlier that the perpetrators of the crime would not be allowed to go scot-free. He, however, at the same time in his talk also urged the people of Kashmir to give up violence and come forward to join the mainstream.

Modi’s high in spirit but rooted in restraint speech on Saturday and the radio talk on Sunday cautioned the hawks within the party to not run helter-skelter on the issue. Before leaving for Kozhikode, Modi had deliberated with the Army, Navy and the Air Force leadership on the possible follow-up action on Uri attack. His address to the people of Pakistan and people of Kashmir to try and taste the fruit of development and prosperity is being interpreted as a signal that Modi, for now, did not endorse the “tooth for a tooth” line set by party ideologue Ram Madhav. The architect of PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir, party general secretary Ram Madhav had indicated toughening of stand vis-a-vis the separatists and Pakistan following the attack on the army camp in Uri, in which 17 soldiers were killed.