BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday condemned the brutal attack on Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in a Pakistani jail on Friday and said had India been strong, such attacks would not have taken place.
“Sarabjit was attacked in a Pakistani prison and it is condemnable. It is the responsibility of the country concerned to provide security to its prisoners. But the way Sarabjit was attacked is unfortunate and I condemn it” he said at the Matri Shree Awards function here.
“But it is not the first instance. Before this, Chamel Singh and someone called Lakshman, who too were arrested, were attacked inside a prison and died later. But Pakistan did nothing,” he said.
Noting that incidents such as the beheading of Indian soldiers by the Pakistan Army on the border jolted the nation’s conscience, the BJP chief said, “when a small country like Pakistan violates the border and kills Indian soldiers, we should strongly protest. But, we are never able to do that.”
He said, “if we had been strong in protesting against earlier incidents, I can say with confidence that no one would have dared to attack an Indian prisoner lodged in a Pakistani jail. The government would have been wary that if any harm came an Indian way, India would retaliate. But they know that even if they beheaded our soldier, India would say nothing,” he lamented.
Singh said the political class in the country was facing a credibility crisis because of the huge difference in its words and deeds.
“Our country is in a whirlpool of trouble. India’s pride is being hurt by corruption and it has to be dealt with. There is danger outside...Besides the internal trouble,” he said. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said the UPA Government’s entire foreign policy was in “a coma.”
“Be it the attack on Sarabjit in a Pakistan jail or the 19-km deep incursion in Ladakh by China or the beheading of Indian soldiers, India’s position under this government has been very weak,” he said.
“This is a spineless government. It cannot assert our real position vis-a-vis our neighbour. We cannot even impress on our neighbours to do justice. The attitude the government has adopted in the Sarabjit episode is very condemnable,” he told reporters here.The BJP’s strong reaction came on a day Pakistan denied consular access to Indian officials from the Islamabad High Commission to visit Sarabjit, who is in coma in a Lahore hospital.
Meanwhile, Ajmer dargah chief priest Diwan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan told reporters in Ajmer that the attack on Sarabjit was “an un-Islamic act in an Islamic country” and such incidents could create a negative atmosphere for the minority community in India.
He said he suspected Pakistan’s ISI had got Sarabjit attacked to “avenge” the hanging of Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in February.
Khan also demanded that the government address such issues effectively.