New Delhi, December 18
The Opposition today asked the Vajpayee government to exhaust all other options before deciding to launch an attack on terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir even as the ruling benches led by the BJP and the Shiv Sena clamoured for a strong action in retaliation against the December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament.

Participating in a discussion on Home Minister L.K. Advani’s statement on the terrorist attack on Parliament in the two Houses of Parliament, while the Opposition benches urged the government to avoid contentious issues in its fight against terrorism, the ruling National Democratic Alliance members pressed for conversion of the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) into a law.

Before the discussion began, Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi and Chairman Krishan Kant suspended the question hour and took up for discussion the attack on Parliament.

Initiating the discussion in the Lok Sabha, Samajwadi Party (SP) President Mulayam Singh Yadav said the government should weigh the pros and cons of any retaliatory action it might consider against Pakistan.

Attacking the government for not taking appropriate steps to prevent the incident, Mr Yadav said despite intelligence information that Parliament was the next target of terrorists, the government treated the matter in a casual manner.

However, Mr Yadav said the government should keep aside all the controversial issues, including Ayodhya and POTO, and desist from taking political mileage out of the attack. The government should convene an all-party meeting to take them into confidence on matters of national unity, he added.

He criticised the government’s policy on Ayodhya, urging it to discipline those who were violating the Supreme Court directive on this issue.

Mr Yadav also urged that all Muslims should not be branded as terrorists. A handful of them may be involved and the government should severely penalise them.

Countering allegations that he was involved in appeasing Muslims, he wanted to know which political parties did not want minorities votes in the election. “All political parties seek support from all religious groups,” he added.

He also asked the ruling party to rein in the Bajrang Dal and other such organisations and prevent them from issuing deadlines on resolving the Ayodhya issue which should be left to the court to decide.

In the Rajya Sabha, the government came under a heavy fire as the Opposition charged it with security lapses for the attack even while offering support to the government in this challenging hour.

Raising a discussion, Opposition leader Manmohan Singh said though the Opposition stood firmly behind the government, the Centre could have been more alert in preventing such attacks.

Stating that most of the information given in the statement contained precious little as the information has already appeared in the media, Dr Singh said the Congress joined the “countrymen in condemning the dastardly terrorist attack on Parliament”.

Asking the government not to be complacent after the attack on Parliament, the Congress stressed in Lok Sabha that adequate security measures should be taken to deal with possible air strikes on Parliament and attacks on Rashtrapati Bhavan, Supreme Court and other vital installations in the Capital.

BJP Parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said POTO was necessary to deal with terrorism.

Referring to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s advise earlier in the House that the government left out all controversial issues, Mr Malhotra wondered how the SP leader could lend full support to the government in the fight against terrorism by opposing POTO.

Congress Deputy leader Shivraj V. Patil said the issue should not be dealt with lightly on the ground that the terrorists had not succeeded in their mission.

Contending that security requirements should be taken care of keeping in view larger threat perceptions, including possible air strikes on Parliament, he said Delhi needed full security since it houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, North and South Blocks, Army and Air Headquarters and several other key installations.

“Supreme Court can be a target”, he cautioned.

On the ruling coalition pressing for passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, he asked whether POTO was not in operation on December 13. Those in favour of POTO should do some introspection.

He recalled that TADA was in operation at the time of the Bombay blasts and the measure was stoutly opposed by BJP and others who were then in the Opposition. If government wanted to bring another law, the issue could be discussed in the House, he said.

Challenging the government for giving one example when the Opposition has not cooperated with the government on an issue of national importance, CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee said it was unfortunate that the government had not been taking the Opposition into confidence.

Taking strong exception to an effort by the ruling benches to paint the Opposition as unpatriotic, Mr Chatterjee pointed out that today support to POTO and patriotism had become synonymous. He said the Home Minister’s statement contained no new information.

Coming down heavily on the ruling combine, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar said, “indecisive governments cannot tackle terrorism” and advised Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to refrain from talk of conflict with Pakistan as “war is a dangerous game”.

Advising the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, he said war would only lead to destruction of the country as that of Pakistan.