London, July 19 (ANI): Tributes were paid to the victims of the recent terror attacks in Mumbai at a meeting of the Indo-British all Party Parliamentary Group and the Indo-European Business Forum at the House of Commons here.
The meeting convened by the chairman of the group Virendra Sharma, MP from the Indian-dominated constituency of Ealing-Southall for an interaction with the visiting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Nitin Gadkari and his delegation observed a minutes silence in memory of those killed in the three blasts in different parts of Mumbai.
Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said: "We Mumbaikars have faced similar attacks in the past as well and we have time and again shown courage and determination to withstand such onslaughts".
Gadkari told the meeting that not only Mumbai, but the whole of India lived in a very uncertain neighbourhood. Pakistan has been using terror as a state policy and terror groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were offshoots of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
He appreciated Britain's repeated calls to Pakistan to stop exporting terror to India and other places but said the actions taken by Islamabad so far in dealing with terror emanating from its soil were just an eye-wash.
Gadkari called for joint Indo-British efforts in defeating global terrorism which he said was a challenge for the entire humanity.
Replying to questions, the BJP president said the BJP favoured good relations with all its neighbours, including Pakistan, so that there could be peace in the region. But cross-border terrorism has disturbed peace in the region.
Answering another question, he said BJP was not against the minorities in India and was committed to solving their socio-economic problems, adding that his party would never adopt any anti-minority and anti-Muslim policy.
Gadkari also said Hindutva is not anti-Muslim. It is a way of life.
Speaking on the occasion Convener of the Overseas Friends of BJP Vijay Jolly appreciated that Britain no longer considered the issue of Jammu and Kashmir as an unfinished agenda of the partition and said the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration have left no scope for any third party mediation.
Jolly raised the plight of Indian students studying the Britain whose academic institutions have been de-recognised and urged the government to help them tide over the difficult situation faced by them.
Vijay Goel of the Indo-European Business Forum supported Jolly and hoped that the British government will find a way out in resolving the problem of the large Indian student community. (ANI)
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