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Vajpayee watches hockey to make peace with Pakistan

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's first engagement after assuming office was to visit the National stadium in Delhi to watch the India-Pakistan hockey match.

"It was a special gesture," said an external affairs spokesman, "A message of goodwill and friendship."

Interestingly, the goodwill gesture comes close on the heels of Pakistan's announcement that it was 'worried' about the new government's decision to keep India's nuclear options open. This, the Pakistan authorities said, could start a deadly nuclear arms race in the subcontinent.

The BJP's national agenda, said Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Tariq Altaf, is worrisome. "We are very seriously disturbed at this assertion (of India) and its implications which threaten the peace and stability of South Asia," he said, "The open threat to exercise nuclear option creates a fearsome situation."

Vajpayee's gesture, we can but hope, may put everything right!

UNI

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