House backs PM's ceasefire, snubs lone irritant Sena
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 23: Prime Minister A B Vajpayee today squarely snubbed key alliance partner, the Shiv Sena, for opposing the Government's decision to announce a unilateral ceasefire in the Kashmir valley.

In fact, the Shiv Sena was totally isolated in Parliament this morning and Vajpayee drew strength from the unanimous support of the House for the ceasefire to bluntly brush aside his ally's dissent when he got up to reply to an impromptu discussion during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha. The discussion was mooted by Shiv Sena MP Adhik Shirodkar, who said yesterday's massacre of five truck drivers in the valley was ``a slap on India'' and that ceasefire should be called back.

``The danger (to the ceasefire) is not so much from those opposed to it in Kashmir but from those demanding its withdrawal... the Shiv Sena's emotions can be understood but they shouldn't take their protest beyond a limit,'' Vajpayee said.

The PM's criticism of the Shiv Sena didn't there. ``At times, it is a question of one vote and sometimes it is a question of one party,'' he observed caustically on the Shiv Sena being the only party to oppose the government's ceasefire decision.

While Vajpayee's snub shut up the Shiv Sena in the Rajya Sabha, the party's MPs staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha to express their opposition to the planned ceasefire.

Taking its cue from Vajpayee's rap to the Shiv Sena, the Congress went a step further later in the afternoon during a discussion on the Government's foreign policy and demanded that India start a dialogue with the military regime in Pakistan. ``When you can talk to Myanmar under pressure of a western country, why can't you talk to Pakistan about Kashmir,'' Congress MP Pranab Mukherjee asked.

Admitting that the ceasefire was a ``calculated risk'' on the part of the Government, Vajpayee, appearing in the Rajya Sabha for the first time after his knee operation, assured the house that there was no slackness in security, despite yesterday's killings.

``The unilateral ceasefire has been announced after a lot of thought, planning and preparation... we were expecting trouble but the step is meant to facilitate the peace process in the state,'' he said, adding that yesterday's killings were part of a well-planned design by the militants to defame the army since, as in the earlier massacre at Chattisinghpora, the terrorists were in army uniform.

Later in the afternoon, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam hit back at Vajpayee for saying that the Sena was a bigger threat to him than the terrorists. Quoting a confessional statement of a Lashkar-e-Taiba suicide squad member arrested in Thane that he had come to kill Sena chief Bal Thackray and blow up RSS headquarters in Nagpur. ``It is ironical that the Lashkar militants are not a threat for our Prime Minister and the Shiv Sena is although it has stood like a rock with him through thick and thin,'' he said.

While initiating the discussion on the Government's foreign policy, the Leader of the House Jaswant Singh, asserted that the government was unambiguous and unrelenting in its approach toward cross-border terrorism. He observed that ``caravan of peace and humanity cannot be stopped because of some barking village dogs.''

All parties, barring the Shiv Sena, welcomed the ceasefire, although the Congress led by Manmohan Singh, sounded a note of caution and urged the government to ensure the lives of innocent people are protected.

The house witnessed snappy exchanges between BJP member S S Alhuwalia and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam on the issue. Nirupam hotly denied Alhuwalia's claim that the ceasefire had been welcomed by the entire country.

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