The Hindu : Fresh mandate certain for Vajpayee-led Government, says Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 11, 2004

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Fresh mandate certain for Vajpayee-led Government, says Advani

By Our Special Correspondent

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, with Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, during the second Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conference in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

NEW DELHI, JAN. 10. In a public display of support for the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today declared that Atal Bihari Vajpayee would be the Bharatiya Janata Party's leader in the next general elections. He also expressed complete confidence that the people would give a five-year mandate to a Government under Mr. Vajpayee. "I have no doubt about it," he said.

Addressing the second Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conference, he said the country had seen seven different Prime Ministers during the decade ending 1998, but it was ``only Mr. Vajpayee'' who had been able to lead the country. Mr. Advani commended the Prime Minister for his ``vision and leadership'' that had ``enabled India to move on the path to becoming an economic superpower''.

He said that just as the 20th century ``belonged to the West, the 21st century would be that of India''. The short-term goal in this direction was to become a developed country by 2020 like the U.S., Germany and the U.K. Referring to the "feel-good" factor in the economy, he said it would soon turn into the "feel-great" factor, due to the ``sound economic policies'' followed by the Government in recent years.

He lauded the decisions taken in Islamabad recently to resume the composite dialogue. He said the decisions taken when Mr. Vajpayee went to Pakistan just three days ago were historic and a major breakthrough. The fight against terrorists in Kashmir was yielding results and a good indicator of the growing normality in the Kashmir Valley was the revival of tourism. As many as 1.5 lakh tourists visited the Valley last year, he said even while urging non-residents and people of Indian origin at the conference to visit resorts in Kashmir.

"With the successful conduct of free and fair elections in the State in October 2002, Jammu and Kashmir has rejoined the comity of Indian States in its trek for peace, normality and development," he said.

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