BJP accuses US of double standards on Headley

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NEW DELHI/INDORE - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday accused the US of double standards over Mumbai terror suspect David Headley and said he should be brought to India for interrogation.

BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay told reporters in Indore: “Headley, whose actions led to 26/11 and other terrorist attacks in India, is our culprit and therefore he should be interrogated in this country.”

Tarun Vijay said that US was adopting double standard on terrorism.

“On one hand it is telling India to stand with it against terrorism. And on the other (it is) providing regular support to Pakistan which has done nothing to stop terrorism against India from its soil,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, the BJP said that the US was pursuing the “help-the-ally-at-any-cost” policy and did not want to expose Pakistan’s involvement in terror activities.

“The BJP’s apprehension that India will be denied access to the most wanted terrorist, Headley, is possibly becoming a reality,” spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said in New Delhi.

She said US ambassador Timothy Roemer’s remark that no decision to provide access to interrogate Headley has been taken “has only added to our fear(s)”.

The statement came as Indian officials expressed confidence that India would be given direct access to interrogate the Pakistani-born US national who has admitted scouting for targets for the Mumbai terror attack.

Headley has also said that he attended terrorist camps in Pakistan.

“Pakistan has been and is an ally of the US. Our worry is that the US will not permit revealing anything that projects, in this case without a shred of doubt, Pakistan’s involvement in perpetrating terror in the sub-continent,” Sitharaman said.

“This ‘help-the-ally-at-any-cost’ attitude of the US is seen also in the statement made by (Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton,” the BJP said.

She said if India was indeed denied access to Headley, “we shall not know about the roles played by the so called state and non-state actors (in Pakistan).

“This is a failure of Indian diplomacy. (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh is going too much out of his way to befriend the US. We are not being treated as equal partners. India has failed to assert its sovereign right in not obtaining access to have a custodial interrogation of the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack.”