India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday strongly condemned Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip and expressed hope that the world community will work together to restore peace in the region. In his first public statement on the ongoing attacks, Singh said India strongly condemns the incidents and regrets the loss of many innocent lives.
Coincidentally, the Government of India also released to DPA the following remarks by M. Singh regarding the ongoing India-Pakistan matters related to the Mumbai (Bombay) attacks of last month:
Speaking in Chennai, Singh said the forces of extremism and terrorism would not be allowed to destabilize the economy and polity of India. He promised to work with the global community to ensure that there are no safe havens or launching pads for terrorists.Not seeing any implied contradiction there; nope.
Noting that the Mumbai attacks were a grim reminder of the threat posed by extremism to India's pluralistic and liberal traditions, Singh said, "There are some who would not like to see India succeed. But we have shown, over and over again, that we will not allow the forces of terrorism and extremism to destabilize our polity, our economy and our society," he said.
Gentlemen, the same fanatical ideology, the same methodology, and the same root causes are behind LeT and Hamas; perhaps the same enablers are playing a role as well.
It might be at least half a good idea to consider that given India's current need for diplomatic maneuvering room if push comes to shove and India has to strike inside Pakistan, it is less than beneficial to be denouncing someone else for going into a terrorist nest and taking out some of the trash.
It might also have been wiser to run the Press Release on both of these items straight out to all media, rather than leaving DPA the opportunity to spread the shall-we-say-edited message *they* wanted to.
3 comments:
I was in India in Dec 2001-Feb 2002 and I was stopped in Dehli and questioned about why I was there. The police wanted to make sure I wasn't an American or Western journalist reporting on the conflict of Pakistan and India... Needless to say they figured out I wasn't a journalist and I had no interest in reporting the on going conflict... seems the Prime Minister needs to think about what he is condemning... Because it is the same thing going on in Israel. Craziness!
@Becky
Ouch. That was the time of the Parliament attack, which by the way was the same LeT group (that time working with JeM) that did last year's Mumbai attack.
Glad you got on through safely.
Yes, it was a very intense time there. We had a train ride that went from Chennai in the south up to Dehli that was 36 hours long... the day before we left there had been a bombing by radical muslims on the same route. I went to the American Embassy I think seven times while I was in Dehli! That was more for a team member seeking a visa to get into the US. She was from Thailand. I was with an organization called Youth With A Mission. I didn't realize the same groups were behind both attacks... very scary!
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