Blaming the Union government for the Malegaon bomb blasts and rising terror in the country, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has called for termination of peace talks with Pakistan unless terrorism is checked.

Kicking off the party’s Assembly election campaign for Uttaranchal at a massive rally here, Vajpayee said the latest blasts show that the Central government has become totally ineffective and directionless. “I was the one who started peace talks with Pakistan, but it failed. But the present government seems totally directionless,” he said.

The former prime minister said there was a need to strengthen the intelligence network in the country in the fight against terror and the present Congress government has failed in this. “Whether it is Mumbai or Jammu-Kashmir, it is the same situation,” he added.

Vajpayee also charged that inflation has risen during the present United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and common man has been finding it difficult to make both ends meet. He called upon the people to change the present government in the forthcoming Assembly elections. “There should be a change not for power, but for changing people’s lives,” he said. Earlier, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani blamed the UPA government for going soft on security. Taking credit for fulfilling the promise of giving a separate state to the people of Uttaranchal, Advani said security and unity of the country, democracy and cultural nationalism have been the main pillars of the BJP ideology since the very beginning.

... contd.