From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: The BJP national president Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that his party had no objection to the land swap deal between India and Bangladesh so long as India is suitably ‘compensated’ for giving away land/enclaves to the neighbouring country.
Addressing a press conference here, Singh said, “If the land swap deal has to be executed, India must be suitably compensated. If the (Indian) government wants to give land or enclaves to Bangladesh, the latter must also suitably compensate us,” he said.
The BJP president demanded that the government must take the Opposition parties into confidence and also hold discussions with people of Assam and West Bengal which have borders with Bangladesh and will be the most affected if the deal is executed.
Singh’s statement, however, was in sharp contrast to the BJP’s previously proclaimed stand that it would not allow any land to be handed over to Bangladesh and its Assam unit leaders last week also hoisted the Tricolour at one of border enclaves marked for giving away from Assam to the bordering nation.
The BJP chief questioned the Bangladesh government’s apparent inaction in dealing with the illegal migration from the country to India and also alleged that the Congress-led UPA government in India was also not serious about the issue.
Food Security Ordinance: The BJP president Rajnath Singh described the Centre’s decision to issue a Food Security Ordinance as a populist measure of the Congress with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“The Lok Sabha elections are approaching and the government is now resorting to populist steps. The decision for an ordinance on the Food Security programme is one such step,” he said.
He questioned the reasons behind UPA government’s hurry in issuing the Ordinance when the Parliament was to meet for the Monsoon Session shortly.
He also raised doubts over the ‘real intentions’ of the government, pointing that the UPA has been in power for nine years now but chose to issue the Food Security Ordinance towards its fag end.
The BJP chief clarified that his party is not opposed to the Food Security Bill but there were serious loopholes in the draft bill, which the BJP wanted to be amended after a thorough discussion in the Parliament.
Deemed to be the biggest such programme in the world when implemented, it seeks to provide highly subsidized food grains to two-third of the nation’s population.
Autonomy to CBI: Reiterating the charge against the Congress for misusing the CBI, BJP Rajnath Singh advocated at least functional autonomy for the federal investigating body.
Accusing the Congress government of misusing all Constitutional institutions, Singh pointed that even the Supreme Court has asked for autonomy to the CBI but the government has not taken any concrete steps for it.
Stating that there are several instances of the misuse of the CBI by the government, he pointed to the agency’s handling of the Ishrat Jahan ‘fake encounter’ case. “For its own benefit, the government has brought the CBI and IB on a confrontation in the Ishrat Jahan case,” he claimed and asked the government to make public the track record ofIshrat Jahan and the names of the terrorist groups she allegedly had links with.