New Delhi, Jan 08: Giving a virtual ultimatum to the
government, Samajwadi Party on Thursday said if no "action" is taken
against Pakistan within five days, it would have to review its
support.
Complaining that the ruling UPA was treating it like an
"outsider" on the issue of dealing with Pakistan, the SP said
it was under "tremendous pressure" from its cadres as the
government was not doing anything against the neighbouring
country despite the Mumbai attacks.
The party, which is extending crucial outside support to
the Congress-led government, said its Parliamentary Board
meeting here today was of the view that India needed to take
strong action against Pakistan.
"The meeting criticised the government for failing to
take any concrete action against Pakistan in the aftermath of
the Mumbai terror attacks," SP general secretary Amar Singh
told a press conference along with party chief Mulayam Singh
Yadav after over a two-hour meeting.
"In this light we have decided to give it five days' time
to take action against Pakistan, otherwise we will review our
support to the government in a working committee meeting of
our party which would be called after January 14," he said.
The party's virtual ultimatum came a day after Singh
issued a similar threat of withdrawal of support, only to tone
it down after meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi a few
hours later.
Singh said the SP and he personally were under
"tremendous pressure" from party leaders as it was his
initiative to support the UPA on the nuclear deal.
"I have asked the party leaders to wait till January 14,
when President Pratibha Patil will also come back to Delhi...
We don't want to take any step in her absence," he added.
The SP threat comes amid media speculation that the party
was not satisfied with government's assurances that there
would be no action against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in the
disproportionate assets case, despite Supreme Court hauling up
CBI for going slow on it.
"It was observed in the Parliamentary party meeting that
there is hardly any coordination between us and Congress as
far as discussions about Government's steps to counter
Pakistan are concerned," Amar Singh said, adding that SP comes
to know about UPA's decisions only through the media as
neither the Prime Minister's Office nor the National Security
Advisor bother to convey anything to them.
"We feel like outsiders, even though the government today
is surviving because of our support," Singh said.
The SP leader, who was speaking in the presence of
Mulayam Singh Yadav and senior party Rajya Sabha MP Janeshwar
Mishra, said that his party has already called for an attack
on Pakistan.
Criticising the double standards being adopted by the US
vis-a-vis its tacit support to Israel, Singh said that "while
the US supports Israel's air-strikes in Gaza against
innocents, it asks India to exercise restraint against
Pakistan".
With the aim of exposing this strategy of the US and to
mount criticism on it at the international level, "we would
be meeting envoys of all Arab nations soon. In fact, our party
chief Mulayam Singh Yadav along with me will be going to Libya
at Col. Qaddafi's invitation on January 27, where we will
criticise the Israeli air-strikes in Gaza."
The SP general secretary said that his party cannot keep
quiet on the "impotency" of the UPA government.
"Despite Congress leaders like Digvijay Singh calling our
party chief a back stabber and Satyavrat Chaturvedi calling me
a mental case, we continue to support the Congress, but things
can only be stretched up to a point," he said.
SP hits out at Maya govt
Accusing the BSP government in
Uttar Pradesh of failing to maintain law and order, Samajwadi
Party on Thursday gave a call for Noida bandh on Friday to protest
against the alleged gang rape of an MBA student there earlier
this week.
"Law and order in Uttar Pradesh has crumbled
completely. First it was the murder of an engineer in Auraiya
and now the gang rape of a young MBA student in Noida," SP
general secretary Amar Singh said here.
Singh claimed the "growing incidents of crime only
highlight the fact that the state despite being under a
woman's (Mayawati) rule, has failed to provide safety to the
women folk."
The party, he told reporters, has called for Noida
bandh tomorrow "to protest against such lawlessness".
Claiming that no other party except for SP had come
forward to oppose the BSP in UP, Singh said that Mayawati "has
conveniently taken a number of people with questionable track
records in her party fold like D P Yadav and Ateeq Ahmad".
Bureau Report