BJP mostly mum on action against Pakistan

New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS) A day after BJP strategist Ram Madhav suggested "for one tooth, a complete jaw" following the killing 18 soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP on Monday mostly kept mum over the issue.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who rarely miss an occasion to comment on issues related to terrorism and Pakistan refused to speak when asked about what the government's next move must be to "teach a lesson to Pakistan".

Most party leaders, when contacted by IANS, did not want to say anything and insisted that it was up to the government to decide what needed to be done vis-a-vis Pakistan.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already spoken and our President has also commented. What should I say now," a BJP General Secretary told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

Another party leader spoke on similar lines. "Rajnathji is saying. He is holding meetings. Better you speak to him," he said, referring to Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Yet another General Secretary also said he did not want to discuss the issue with the media. "The whole government is speaking in one voice, so we need not to comment."

A handful of other BJP leaders did not call back despite repeated attempts by IANS to contact them.

Four terrorists said to be "foreigners" were killed on Sunday after they attacked an army camp at Uri in Kashmir and slaughtered 18 soldiers in the worst such attack on any military camp in the state in 10 long years.

Madhav said in a Facebook post on Sunday that the Prime Minister had promised that those behind the Uri terror attack would not go unpunished.

"That should be the way forward. For one tooth, the complete jaw," said Ram Madhav, a former senior functionary in the RSS.

"Days of so-called strategic restraint are over. If terrorism is the instrument of the weak and coward, restraint in the face of repeated terror attacks betrays inefficiency and incompetence," he added.

"India should prove otherwise," he said.

BJP President Amit Shah also condemned the Uri attack.

Interestingly, apart from Shah and Ram Madhav, no other party leader has commented on the issue although many in the government have -- including the Home and Finance Ministers, both of whom blamed Pakistan.