Accusing Islamabad of pursuing double standards, the BJP today said Pakistan cannot simultaneously talk of peaceful relations with India and carry out a proxy war against the country.
"Pakistan which talks of peaceful relations with India on the one hand is carrying out a proxy war with its neighbour on the other. This depicts the double standards of Pakistan", BJP president Nitin Gadkari told reporters here.
Asserting that New Delhi wanted cordial ties with Islamabad, the new BJP chief said Pakistan will have to stop its "vigorous support" to militancy if it really wanted to improve relations with India.
"If Pakistan whole-heartedly wants better relations with India, then it must stop vigorously supporting militancy and militant outfits on its soil", he said.
Advising both India and Pakistan to cut down their defence budgets, he said the two countries should focus instead on combating poverty and ushering in development.
Talking about Ram Temple, he said the party's main issues or agenda remained unchanged and added that there could be three ways of resolving the issue.
One, by negotiation between the two religious groups involved, two by a bill in Parliament and the third option was to wait for the final court verdict, he said.
Asked about the re-organization of the party, he said he had recently taken over as party president and it would not be appropriate to say anything on this issue.
Holding the UPA resoponsible for the rising prices of essential commodities, Gadkari said it was a result of the Centre's wrong economic policies.
The Centre did not create buffer stock of sugar, exported 48 lakh tonnes of sugar in 2008 and 2009 at the average price of Rs 12.50 per kg leaving the country with no choice but to import raw sugar at Rs 36/- per kg, he said.
Terming UPA's economic policies as 'horrible', he said they were the root cause of rising food prices.
"India had double digit inflation in 2008, went into deflation of 1 per cent in August 2009 and now once again in December 2009, inflation has reached 7.31 per cent", he said.
He said the party had chalked out a month-long agitational programme including sit-ins, demonstrations, protest marches and rallies to be launched from January 18 to raise its voice aginst price rise.
Later, he paid obeisance at the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple and took part in the 'langer' (community kitchen) there besides visiting the historic Jallianwalla Bagh where he paid tribute to the martyrs of the freedom struggle.
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