[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose National Identity Cards-50

[Taha Mehmood]

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=90506

Advani confident J&K elections will be "turning point"

NEW DELHI, OCT 13 (PTI)

Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today asserted that the latest
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will "prove" a turning point
in India's efforts to find a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue.

Advani said he was in position to make two predictions safely and with
full responsibility -- one the Government would overcome cross-border
terrorism in J and K with the active support of people like it did in
Punjab and secondly "I have no no doubt that these elections will
prove a turning point in our efforts to find a lasting solution to the
Kashmir issue." He was speaking at press conference on the occasion of
completion of three years of NDA Government.

Political parties are presently engaged in weighing their gains and
losses, he observed.

"But from Government's point of view I would like to repeat what I
have said earlier: the real winner in this election has been India and
its democracy and the actual loser has been ISI and the terrorist
tanzeems it has nurtured," he said.

"If there is one development which simultaneously showcases our
commitment to national security, national unity and integrity and
democracy, it is the successful completion of elections in J and K,"
Advani said.

Mentioning of India's success in isolating Pakistan in the
international community and its victory in the Kargil war, Advani said
India's efforts to strengthen its national security were illustrated
by courageous initiatives to make it a nuclear weapons state and its
uncompromising handling of the post-Pokharan fallout.

Following up on the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee,
Government carried out a comprehensive review of the National Security
System. Many of its recommendations such as the Integrated Defence
Staff, Defence Procurement Board and Joint Tri-Service Andaman and
Nicobar Command have already been implemented, he said.

The NDA Government has increased the focus on India's internal
security in an unpreceented manner. This is demonstrated by the
enactment of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA),2002, Rs.1000
crore annual police modernisation fund, modernisation of Central
para-military forces, the peace process in the North-East and the
soon-to-be-launched Multipurpose National Identity Cards system --
first on a pilot basis and later universally, he said.

"Our security forces have turned the heat on Pak- supported terrorist
groups in a relentless manner with significant gains on the ground.

Mentioning about three major gains to Indian democracy, Advani said
firstly, the NDA Government's stability stood in sharp contrast to the
debilitating instability that India experienced in the latter half of
the 90s.

Secondly, the successful NDA experiment, building on the unsuccessful
experience of the two United Front Governments previously, had given
an unprecedented opportunity for regional parties to actively
participate in governance at the Centre, he said.

Thirdly, the NDA partners could legitimately claim credit for
strengthening the principle of cooperative federalism in India, Advani
said.

The people of India have now seen that coalition governance at the
Centre can indeed be successful, provided the partners in the ruling
alliance are committed to an agreed common minimum programme and
follow the norms of what can be called the "Coalition Dharma", he
said.

Notwithstanding the occasional minor episodes which are to be expected
in a large multi-party democracy, the NDA Government's success in this
regard is in no no small measure due to the experienced and
enlightened leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee who commands
unparalleled credibility and popularity beyond the supporters of the
BJP and its allies in the NDA.

Centre-state relations have been the "smoothest" and most harmonius in
several decades, he said, adding the Central Government has
scrupulously followed the policy of neither favouring nor disfavouring
any stat e on the basis of which party rules where. "This, despite the
fact that a large number of states are governed by parties that are in
the opposition at the Centre.

Listing Government's achievements in various sectors and asserting
that its goal was to make India a developed nation, Advani said the
Centre was well aware of the challenges and tasks that confronted the
nation and the Government.

Stressing that the Government was equally proud of its many unique
initiatives and landmark achievement in the areas of India-s
socio-economic development, Advani said that in infrastrcture
development, some of the projects launched by it were the most
ambitious since independence and referred to the Rs.54,000 crore
National Highways Development Project, Alongside the gains in
democracy, India has made big gains in national development and
national security. "Taken together, these have made Indian people look
to the future with greater hope and self-confidence and, at the same
time, considerably raised India's stature in the international
community." "Today, as we renew our pledge to implement all the
promises made in the common manifesto of the NDA, we once again thank
the people of India for the faith they have reposed in us and appeal
for their continued support in the remaining two years of our tenure,
" he said, adding "thereafter, it is our aim to seek, and win, under
the leadership of Vajpayee their renewed and bigger mandate on the
strength of this Government's performance.