Chittorgarh (Rajasthan): Describing illegal immigration to India as "horrific", Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Apr 2, 2004) sought a national consensus on citizenship identity cards to strengthen internal security.

"Illegal immigration is a major problem for India and it has reached horrific proportions. No other country faces this problem to the magnitude that India does. There is a need for consensus for creating a national register of citizens and providing citizenship identity cards, important for internal security," Advani said during his 'Bharat Uday Yatra'.

"We have discussed the issue at the conference of director generals of police and Chief Ministers. If the Election Commission and political parties also take up the matter for making an ideal voting list as it was unfortunate that the voters came to know that their names did not exist on the list only on the Election Day," he said.

This will enhance the quality of democracy and governance besides facilitating the detection and deportation of illegal immigrants, he said.

Asked about the recent comments by party leaders on Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Advani said, "They were not personal remarks. The foreign origin issue is not personal but a political matter. It even had a direct effect on Congress that split on the issue. And a person whom they had made speaker of the Lok Sabha, left the party and is still not prepared to join it due to differences on foreign origin issue."

He was referring to P A Sangma leaving Congress party but did not take his name.

Asserting that India had an "independent" foreign policy, Advani said, "We take decisions on our own. We do not allow any power to dictate our policies. Despite considerable American pressure, we did not send our soldiers to Iraq, we became a nuclear power in spite of their opposition to it. They imposed sanctions on us due to this but we don't care."

On the recent "major non-NATO ally" status given to Pakistan by the US, he said the US has a foreign policy of its own but immediately after this, Government reacted strongly over the matter.

On Indo-Pak relations, he said the foreign secretaries had met and discussed how to proceed on the composite dialogue process after the general elections. "We hope Pakistan will also move forward on it."

"The ongoing cricket series in Pakistan was an important step in improving bilateral relations. Any country that wins feels happy we are also happy over the victory," he said.

Advocating simultaneous holding of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the country, Advani said, "I would like to reiterate my strong belief that the election season in India should be both fixed and simultaneous."

"I believe this will impart greater stability to policy making, infuse a greater sense of responsibility in the political class to ultimately promote the culture of good governance."

Stressing for electoral reforms in the country, he said, "I am personally inclined to favour State funding of political parties for elections."

"During Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure, we initiated important political reforms to strengthen Indian democracy. The anti-defection law has been strengthened. The use of money power has been checked through open voting for the Rajya Sabha.

"The use of money to influence politics has been sought to be controlled by giving incentives for transparency in political donations," Advani said adding members of the armed forces have been given right to vote by proxy.

"We are at a very important stage in the evolution of Indian democracy. Economically we have made substantial progress in the past six years. Our potential as a future economic giant has been recognised internationally. We are at a take off stage and I have fate in India's ability to become a developed economy and a global power by 2020."

Asked if BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) had abandoned scrapping of Article 370 and bringing uniform civil code, Advani said, "Even the Constitution says that Article 370 is temporary."

"Uniform Civil Code is part of constitution. One can say that the Ram Temple issue has been raised by the BJP but the civil code is part of the Constitution's directive principles of State policy and even the Supreme Court has time and again stressed this."