PTI

New Delhi, Feb 9: The Centre on Friday rubbished senior BJP leader L K Advani’s criticism of the UPA Government’s handling of internal security and said that by doing so “the Prime Minister-in-waiting” was creating an atmosphere of fear and tension.

Striking a defensive note over Centre’s internal security record, Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters that it was unfortunate that the former Home Minister was making such statements to create an atmosphere of tension.

“It seems that Advani’s intention is to generate insecurity by talking of terrorism. Such statements should not be merely denied, but strongly condemned,” he said. Giving comparative figures of the internal security situation during the regimes of NDA and UPA, Jaiswal asserted there had been a 70 percent improvement in the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, while the position had not deteriorated in the Northeast.

So far as the Naxal menace was concerned, he said barring Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar, the problem had been contained up to 90 pc in other parts. “Unfortunately, the party of the Prime Ministerin- waiting is in power in three of these four states. He can at least ask the chief ministers to control the problem,” he said.

Jaiswal said that as part of a well-planned strategy to ‘defame’ the UPA, Advani was saying that the UPA Govt was synonymous with terrorism. “By saying all this, he will not be able to jump to the Prime Minister’s post,” he added.

Asked if any legal action would be taken against the BJP leader, Jaiswal said adopting the legal path did not always work in democracy. It is the people who decide.