Reacting sharply to remarks of National Security Advisor MK Narayanan on India not having a clinching evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in terrorist attacks, the BJP here today said it would be prudent for both the Prime Minister and the NSA “not to make a comic affair of national security through their flip-flop on the issue.”

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said the remarks had embarrassed the security forces and the police. “It is high time the Prime Minister asked his NSA not to shoot off his mouth so often,” he added.

The country, according to the BJP spokesman, would “like to be educated about the distinction between a good and a clinching evidence” regarding the involvement of ISI in Mumbai train blasts. He said the NSA, being an expert, should know that in the case of sponsoring terrorism “a good evidence against the involvement of a third country is as good as clinching evidence.”

Prasad wondered how far was it fair for Naraynan to undermine the Mumbai Police, which had done “a good job in cracking the case.” The party believed that Naraynan had provided Pakistan with an elbow room to deny fomenting terror in India and enable the ISI to refute allegations about its involvement.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having already described Pakistan as a victim of terrorism, Islamabad can also insist upon a joint investigation of allegations under a joint mechanism proposed by both countries at Havana.

Prasad pointed out that it was not the first time Narayanan had triggered a controversy. Earlier, he had made “the dreadful claim that India’s atomic installations are under terrorist threat.” Then came the claim that Al-Qaeda elements had infiltrated in to the Indian Army.

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