BJP's election manifesto: Tough on terror, ‘self-interest’ to guide ties with US

4 Apr 2009

NEW DELHI: As part of its ``muscular foreign policy’’, BJP in its election manifesto has promised to adopt coercive measures, including diplomacy, to deal with Pakistan and vowed to engage with the international community in the ``global war on terror’’.
BJP, which has been highly critical of the UPA’s handling of foreign policy issues, has laid out its foreign policy vision in its manifesto and promised to engage with the world on the ``principle of enlightened self interest.’’ Due to the nuclear deal experience, BJP has also proposed a constitutional amendment making parliamentary approval mandatory for agreements dealing with strategic programmes, territorial integrity and economic interests.

On terror from across the border, BJP has promised tough action against ``countries which promote cross border terrorism’’ and vowed to take action against terrorists and their sponsors. `` BJP will send out a simple message, loud and clear, to terrorists and their sponsors. They will have to pay a heavy price for each innocent life lost. Retribution will be swift and exemplary,’’ the manifesto said.

On Pakistan, BJP does not go into any details of the kind of coercive measures it has in mind. But the party has also ruled out resuming the dialogue with Pakistan until five key steps are taken to shut down the terror infrastructure and the guilty punished.

Listing out the steps that need to be taken by Islamabad, BJP says Pakistan has to dismantle terror infrastructure on its territory, ``actively engage’’ in prosecuting terror elements and put a ``permanent, verifiable end to its practice of using cross border terrorism as an instrument of state policy. The fourth and fifth action, BJP says, is for Pakistan to stop using the territory of third countries to launch terror attacks on India and hand over individuals on India’s most wanted list.

The other issue highlighted by BJP is ties with the US, which have been a contentious issue through most of the UPA’s term due to the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. BJP says that it is desirous of good ties with the US and will strengthen the bilateral relationship on the ``principle of equality’’. With an eye on the criticism the UPA government has faced from various quarters for its singleminded pursuit of ties with the US to the exclusion of other countries like Iran and Russia, BJP says it will strengthen ties with the US without compromising relations with another friendly country.

At the same time, the manifesto says the party will make attempts to revive India’s indigenous strategic programme. Accusing Congress of compromising India’s strategic programme, BJP has promised to ``reverse the drift’’ by expediting and financing India’s indigenous thorium technology programme.

Continuing with its criticism of the nuclear deal, BJP accuses Congress of fooling the people of India and has proposed a constitutional amendment to make it mandatory for the government to seek two-thirds majority for approval or ratification of agreements in Parliament. BJP further says that the party will honour India’s commitment to prevent proliferation but will keep all options open for pushing civilian and military nuclear programme forward and seek cross party consensus before agreeing to arms control regimes.

On ties with other countries, BJP has promised better ties with India’s neighbours, Russia, Central Asian states, Israel and the Arab countries.