Subramanian Swamy in favour of banning Pakistani artists

NEW YORK: Amid Indo-Pak tension, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has backed the call for a ban on Pakistani artists from working in India, saying the consciousness of the Indian people cannot be diluted by allowing them to perform in the country.

"Today we are in a situation where we have to prepare the country's mind that it may be a possibility in future that we may have to go to war. We have been at war with Pakistan four times already, it is not an unusual event," Swamy said at a conference titled 'India and Pakistan: A Subcontinental Affair' organised by the students of New York University here.

"To prepare the mind of the people, we cannot allow these dilutions of cinema artists and cricket players coming to our country and playing. We cannot allow that. The day normalcy comes in Pakistan, we will be the first to resume cricket and cinema," he said at the conference.

Swamy said while war is no solution, the Narendra Modi government will not tolerate terrorism and "if it comes we will retaliate by means that are available to us".

"The mood of the country that I see over the years is only getting hardened and it reflects itself in places where many people would think we shouldn't be really stepping in, for example on (Pak) artists not coming (in India). But that is the mood in the country that they don't want any dilution of our attitude to Pakistan at this present moment.

"It is a gloomy picture for negotiated settlement and dialogue. We will not allow dilution of this consciousness because if you have to prepare for something, then you cannot allow dilution of consciousness so all this naach gaana business will go as a consequence of it," he said.

Swamy added that no one should normally object to culture and arts in a political warfare but given the current situation between India and Pakistan, where "we are not in a war-like situation but (there is) a possibility of war by miscalculation. Therefore we have to be prepared."

Swamy was heckled by a student at the conference when he made the remark that after the Mosul attack by American support forces, many ISIS members were now thinking of taking sanctuary in Pakistan.

Swamy asserted that the "one mistake" India has made in Kashmir, apart going to the UN on the issue, is "not to make it absolutely clear that no discussion will ever take place with Pakistan on the status of Kashmir. The only discussion that will take place is how to end terrorism".

"Political normalcy between India and Pakistan is something which we in India think is fruitless and therefore should not be engaged in," he said.

"There is no point in speaking to the elected government in Pakistan because they don't have any weight, they are unable to implement any decision,"he said.

"We cannot have any dialogue with Nawaz Sharif because we consider him a dummy Prime Minister who cannot implement anything," he said, adding that India tried for the past two and half years and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone out of his way to normalise relations with Pakistan.

"None of these gestures have had any effect and terrorism has continued across the border," he said. Swamy added that after the Uri attack, "our government will give proactive responses to any cross border (terror) attack on us."

Swamy said the UN resolutions on Kashmir have no legality and he is urging the Indian government to write to the UN to say the resolutions be treated as null and void.