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Vajpayee confident about avoiding fractured mandate

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today hinted at early action against those found prima facie responsible for the Kargil crisis.

Answering questions at a press conference in Lucknow on Monday afternoon, he was candid about the intelligence failure in Kargil. "Now the enquiry panel appointed by the government will fix the guilty," he said, but hastened to add, "prima facie, the responsibility of some people has already been fixed and action will soon follow against them."

The prime minister vehemently denied that the four days given to the Pakistani intruders for pulling out amounted to providing safe passage. "How can you call it safe passage?" he countered. "A safe passage is possible only through a formal understanding or agreement and everyone knows that we did not enter into any such deal with Pakistan; our men drove them out."

Vajpayee said the developments in Kargil will necessitate a change in India's defence policy. He, however, denied the charge that Indian troops were ill-equipped to fight the battle in such hostile terrain, thus leading to heavy casualties.

In reply to another question, he denied that there was any kind of understanding between him and United States President Bill Clinton on the Kargil issue. "Mr Clinton did ring me up, but that was only to assure me that he had advised Pakistan to pull out the intruders from Indian territory and to respect the Line of Control," he disclosed.

He admitted that the Kargil developments were responsible for a fresh phase of terrorism in the Kashmir valley, where militants have unleashed violence in a big way over the last few days.

Regarding the new political alliances that are being engineered by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Vajpayee was confident that coalitions could work well in the larger interests of the country. "You can see for yourself, after Jayalalitha we could function very smoothly and now we have several major achievements to our credit," he quipped.

Hopeful that the coming elections would not end in yet another fractured mandate, Vajpayee felt the "people now want a stable government that can remain in office for a full term; they have had enough of elections -- four Lok Sabha elections over the last 10 years."

Favouring a suggestion that any elected government should be allowed to function for a full term, he went on to add significantly, "If we get the opportunity this time, we will surely take certain steps to bring an end to this kind of instability and uncertainty."

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