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Vajpayee sells himself with Kargil, Pokhran

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tuesday urged the people to vote against "destabilisers" and assured the minorities that their ''welfare and protection of all legitimate interests is our responsibility."

In his election address on the Doordarshan television channel, Vajpayee appealed to the people: ''Vote against irresponsibility and opportunism. If destabilisation cost the country heavily, then make the destabilisers pay for it. Teach our opponents how to sit in the Opposition for five years.''

Though the opponents came together to break the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, they did not remain together to make an alternative government. ''Their irresponsible action has once again imposed an untimely and costly elections,'' the PM added.

Vajpayee said national unity without a firm commitment to secularism was unthinkable. The past 17 months have been remarkably free of communal tension. ''Unity, nationalism and self-respect are our people's greatest source of strength,'' he said. Armed with this strength, ''we can overcome any challenge. This has been proved by our victory in Kargil and earlier also at Pokhran,'' he added.

Referring to his government's achievements, Vajpayee said the credit for India's resounding victory in Kargil, or its success against sanctions, does not go to any party or individual. It goes to the brave jawans. It goes to the talented and hardworking farmers, scientists and engineers. A new India was born after Kargil, he went on, an India whose 1 billion people are filled with a new sense of self-confidence and hope and faith.

''The new energy that I see in our young men and women makes me supremely confident that India will achieve vijay (victory) on every front and against all the social and economic ills that still confront our great nation,'' he said.

The prime minister said India needed a clean, responsible, responsive and result-oriented government, not a regime given to ''corruption and petty power struggle.''

UNI

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