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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, SEPT 17: The BJP today accused the Congress of using Pakistani statements as its props, and raked up the 1962 and IPKF disasters to hit out at the party.
BJP again denied that there was anything wrong in sugar imports from Pakistan. ``Sugar was placed under the OGL during the Congress government headed by P V Narasimha Rao,'' BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley pointed out. ``Since then, private entrepreneurs have been free to trade in the commodity. People versed with the preliminaries of international trade would agree that agreements arrived at earlier have to be complied with. In this case, dates become irrelevant.''
``Pakistan suffered a bitter defeat in the Kargil war. The Congress should not try to dilute its bitterness by adding sugar to it,'' he remarked in a lighter vein.
``True to its pattern, the Congress does not want to believe the Indian army. It does not want the Government of India to be believed by the people,'' another BJP spokesman Narendra Modi observed, ``What some retireddiplomat of Pakistan says, what the spokesmen of Pakistan government say in their anxiety to overcome their difficulties at home, what sundry spokesmen of the Pakistan army claimfor the Congress, these are the gospel truth.''
``When India was fighting the Kargil war, the Congress was issuing statements that emboldened and helped Pakistan,'' Modi remarked, ``Now that the Congress is fighting an election, Pakistan is issuing statements that are coming to the aid of the Congress. There cannot be a better example of the reciprocity between the two sides.''
To counter the allegations made by the Congress, the BJP spokesman referred to former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's statement that she and her Indian counterpart Rajiv Gandhi had come to an agreement through Defence Secretary-level talks on withdrawing from Siachen.
He also referred to the statement made by P N Dhar, principal secretary to former Prime Minister, late Indira Gandhi, that she and her Pakistani counterpart Z A Bhutto had come toan agreement to convert the Line of Control into the international border. ``What does the Congress have to say about these issues?'' Modi asked.
He also alleged that the Congress government headed by late Rajiv Gandhi had continued to provide financial assistance to the LTTE even after sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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