Killianwali, September 25
“The world has been watching India”, said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee while cautioning countrymen against terrorism.

Addressing a mammoth rally organised to celebrate the 88th birthday of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal here today, Mr Vajpayee declared that India was ready to face any external danger.

“We have been cautioning the world against terrorism. But earlier no one took us seriously. Terrorism was being sponsored from our neighbourhood. It is still flourishing there, he said, maintaining that ‘killing innocents was in no way serving Islam”.

The gathering, perhaps the biggest ever recorded at any single rally anywhere in the state, did not show enthusiasm towards the Prime Minister’s address.

Besides the Prime Minister, others who addressed the “sadbhavna rally” where the Union Ministers, Mr Parmod Mahajan and Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa; and Chief Ministers Chandrababu Naidu, Farooq Abdullah, Om Prakash Chautala and Parkash Singh Badal. Besides, Mr Tarlochan Singh, Vice-Chairman, National Minorities Commission, Mr Balwinder Singh Bhunder, MP, Mr Gurdev Singh Badal and Mr Abhay Chautala were the other speakers.

Chaos on roads and poor crowd management notwithstanding, the venue of the rally saw a sea of yellow and green flags. The crowd had come expecting of a major political announcement in view of the coming elections in Punjab. Another attraction was star Punjabi pop singer Jasbir Jassi of “Kudi Gujarat di” fame.

“It is an opportunity lost”, remarked a political analyst after the rally.

The Prime Minister, while responding to a request from both Mr Badal and Mr Chautala for the redress of the longstanding demands of farmers invited them to the Capital to find a solution to the vexed problem of agriculture becoming non-profitable.

Mr Vajpayee also hinted at inter- state problems, referring indirectly to water and territorial disputes between the two friendly states, saying that these problems have to be solved only after careful consideration of all aspects.

The Prime Minister said the thrust of his government was in handling the problem of unemployment as a major plan was being launched to provide jobs to all unemployed.

Talking about agriculture, Mr Vajpayee said he shared the concern of agricultural states like Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. “We are trying to change the WTO regime from within so that interests of our people especially small-scale sector, are protected. There will be a meeting of developing nations soon before the next WTO session”.

Complimenting farmers on the green revolution and making the country self sufficient, he said quality of the food produced had to be improved to make it competitive and acceptable in the world market. While the WTO had opened Indian markets to the world, it had also opened avenues for our producers to compete against others and market their products worldwide.

The Prime Minister said he was ready to visit Punjab to listen to grievances of the people. “Punjab is a border state and it has border with Pakistan. The Central Government is aware of the sensitiveness of its geographical location and the problems that people of the border area are facing”, he said, adding that the government would consider setting up a committee of experts at the national level to make agriculture attractive and remunerative again.