The BJP leaders seem to have two different voices on Pakistan. One group calls the UPA Government “weak” and “incapable” of taking strong action against Pakistan, after the killing of two Indian soldiers. The other welcomes India-Pakistan cricket even under such adverse circumstances.
“The BJP has not taken a view on the specifics such as the India-Pak cricketing ties,” spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman’s words explain the party’s predicament.
According to her, the BJP looks at the macro picture and as the main Opposition party asks the government to act accordingly.
However, spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain is clear that “cricket at home ground and brutality along the LoC cannot go hand in hand”.
“Their cricket team played a series here; now their team of terror agents are playing another game at the border. How can this continue?” he says.
It seems senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha’s demand that the India-Pak cricket series be cancelled in the light of comments made by Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik was a one-off statement, without much follow-up by senior party leaders.
Asked if the party failed to take an unequivocal position on the issue because Jaitley is an active BCCI office-bearer, spokesman Prakash Javadekar says it would be an unfair presumption.
Former BJP president Rajnath Singh puts the matter in perspective when he says that India-Pak cricketing ties “must be contingent upon overall approach that Pakistan exhibits towards India”. “These are troubled times. We should, in fact, think of calling back our High Commissioner from Islamabad,” he says, implying that the confidence building measures and cricketing ties could wait.
Asked specifically whether the BJP supports granting visas to 11 Pakistani hockey players, who have been signed by various corporates, and will be here this week to take part in the hockey league, BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad says: “Cricket and hockey are too insignificant; we are more concerned about the benchmarks the government adopts towards Pakistan in talks. The sad part is that Pakistan knows, no matter what, the Government of India would continue with the dialogue process”.
When pressed further on the hockey issue, Prasad says: “It would have been better if it (the hockey league) had not been held at this juncture”.
Another senior BJP leader asserts that there is a great deal of confusion in the party regarding cross-border cricketing ties.