Blasts In Hindu Temples in India

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Pandering to jihadis</b>
Apropos the report, “Terror ravages city of faith” (March 8), <b>Samajwadi Party leader Shahid Siddiqui appearing on a television news channel immediately after the serial blasts in Varanasi on March 7, tried to give a new spin to the ghastly act. He linked it to the growing Indo-US friendship following US President George Bush’s visit, which, according to him, might have provoked international terrorist reprisal</b>. When another participant in the discussion challenged Mr Siddiqui, he backed off, saying he was not justifying the horrendous attack but only mentioning a new possible international angle. One could suspect an implicit advice that the Indian Government should review its close relationship with the US. The violent demonstrations in Lucknow, as the media coverage clearly showed, were triggered by sectarian and anti-national considerations. <b>Mr Siddiqui expressed no concern about the rise of fanaticism and fundamentalism in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere in the country</b>. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Mouthing meaningless rhetoric laced with superficial secularism cannot conceal the bitter reality that jihadi terrorism has arrived in India. </span>And it is being fuelled by self-seeking vote-bank politicians and pseudo-secularists. <b>A series of minority appeasement measures taken by the Congress Governments at the Centre and the States in total disregard of the judicial verdicts, provide the sinister ammunition.</b> Your reports, “Jihadi hub in Varanasi, police ignorant”, and “Dussehra to Holi, UP slides into communal turmoil” (March 8), from Lucknow are a serious indictment of the lackadaisical approach of the authorities.
Pioneer.com
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