M A I N   N E W S

India for peace with Pak, says PM
Tribune News Service

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee addresses Minorities Conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Tribune photo by Mukesh Aggarwal

New Delhi, February 25
With the eye on minority votes, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said today that India wanted to live in peace with Pakistan and appealed to the Muslim community to get out of the “fear psychosis” and “vote bank politics”.

“Get out of the fear that is dividing the nation and vote for a government that will not allow any community to live in fear,” Mr Vajpayee said, addressing the Minorities Conference organised by the BJP’s Minority Cell.

“India is at a turning point and we want to improve the well-being of the people and therefore never allow a situation to be created at the time of elections that can cause harm to the prevailing situation,” he said.

Highlighting the various steps taken by his government in infrastructure, foodgrains production and foreign exchange reserves, the Prime Minister said there was need to take the right information abroad and inform the people that “India is on the right path and growing strong.”

“There is nothing that cannot be solved through dialogue,” he said, and referred to the conduct of elections in Jammu and Kashmir and the improvement in ties with Pakistan.

Lashing out at the Congress, he said while the NDA had been successful in running a coalition, the Congress was still unable to forge a coalition since the parties they were trying to have alliances with had had bitter experience with them in the past.

“If we wanted, we could have floated a party only of Hindus after Independence. But the Muslim League is surviving because it is being patted by the Congress,” he said, while criticising the existence of different yardsticks to measure secularism.

Recalling that he had been contesting elections since 1957, which he won and at times lost, but had never given up hope, Mr Vajpayee said he had never thought that he would become the Prime Minister.

“This has happened because of the inherent strength of democracy which gives the voters the right to install a government or topple it,” he said.

Mr Vajpayee said India was committed to have friendly relationships with all its neighbours and observed that it was keen to “walk and live together” with Pakistan.

Strongly defending his Indo-Pak peace initiatives, the Prime Minister observed that there was no conflict between having peace with the neighbours and keeping the country’s interests in mind.

“Our policy is to have peace with all our neighbours and at the same time, keep the country’s interests in mind. There is no conflict between the two,” he said.

“While following the government’s policy of having peace with neighbours, India’s interests would be kept in mind. I do not see any contradiction between them,” Mr Vajpayee said.

“You can change your friends, but not neighbours. So it is good to live in peace and harmony with neighbours. The peoples of both India and Pakistan want peace. We are keen to walk and live together with Pakistan,” he said.

Recalling his bus journey to Lahore, Mr Vajpayee said it was a good opportunity to improve ties between the two countries, but it was lost. “I do not want to go into the details as to why the opportunity was lost or why the then Pakistan Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharief) had to go,” he said.

“But, I did not lose heart and made another attempt to better relations with Pakistan,” he added.

Earlier, party President M. Venkaiah Naidu and several other BJP leaders, including Union Minister Shahnawaz Hussain, accused the Congress of treating minorities only as “vote bank” and asked the main opposition party to list what they had done for the Muslims during their 50-year rule.

“We never believe in appeasement politics and we want to tell our opponents that before pointing their fingers at the BJP, they should first list what they have done for the minorities during their regime,” Mr Naidu said, listing several minority development-related projects and programmes adopted by the NDA government in the past five years.

It was only during the Vajpayee regime that modernisation of madarsa education had been taken up in a big way and the subsidy for Haj pilgrims hiked to Rs 200 crore per annum from a paltry Rs 10 crore during Congress rule, Mr Naidu said, appealing to the minority community to support development initiatives taken by the Vajpayee government by voting the BJP back to power.

‘Cricketers willing to play in Pak’

New Delhi, February 25
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today stressed the need to create a congenial atmosphere for resumption of sporting links with Pakistan and said Indian players were willing to play wherever they were asked to.

Stating that Indian cricketers would tour Pakistan, Mr Vajpayee said the only issue under discussion was that if they would also play in Karachi. ‘’Whether they are playing there or not, it is our responsibility to preserve an environment worthy of playing,’’ he said.

The Prime Minister also said the atmosphere created for enabling resumption of sporting links between India and Pakistan should be maintained. — UNI