The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been opposing the National Counterterrorism Centre, on Saturday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of failing to provide leadership in fighting terror and asked it to bring in a strong anti-terror law if it was serious on the issue.
"The Congress-led UPA is not providing the leadership to fight terrorism. We cannot win over the fight against terror under UPA," BJP President Rajnath Singh said in his inaugural address at the National Council meet, where he condoled the loss of lives in the recent bomb blasts in Hyderabad.
Claiming that the proposed NCTC was against the country’s federal structure, he said BJP was not against any laws to shore up internal security but will not accept anything that "poses a question mark on the nation’s federal structure".
"If the government brings a law to fight terror, BJP will support it," he said.
"If the government is so serious on the issue of terrorism that it wants to make an anti-terrorism institution like NCTC at central level then why it is not keen on enacting an anti-terrorism law at the Centre," the BJP chief questioned.
He said the one-sided effort which the UPA government made for friendship despite not getting expected help from Pakistan projected the image of India as a 'soft state'.
"As long as the government does not take a tough stand against terrorism, the terrorists with their emboldened spirit would keep targeting cities, trains, buses and other important institutions," Singh said.
The BJP also hit out at Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his 'Hindu terror' remarks, saying they were made under a 'pre-planned conspiracy'.
"The remarks were made not by mistake but under a well-planned conspiracy," Singh said and accused the Congress of indulging in vote bank politics for the last over six decades.
Shinde had later expressed regret over his remarks linking BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to terrorism, which he had made during an All India Congress Committee meet in Jaipur in January, after strong objections from these organisations.
The opposition party also hit out at the ruling dispensation over corruption in the wake of the VVIP helicopter scam and price rise.