Vajpayee asks NRIs to focus on home front

Prime Minister Vajpayee has called upon the Indian diaspora in the UK to take a leaf out of the Chinese book and contribute more to the development of India. Speaking at a dinner meeting organised for the Indian community in London by High Commissioner Ronen Sen, he said NRIs have a lot of expectations from India but they too must give the country greater attention.

He said there was a peculiarity about us Indians — we do much better abroad than in India. He also took a dig at the media for playing up negative news and down-playing constructive work. ‘‘Even your PM (Tony Blair) was complaining about the same thing,’’ he said to laughter.

Vajpayee hit out at Western nations for their double standards on terrorism. ‘‘Our Parliament was attacked. Even our Assembly in Kashmir was attacked. Yet there was no hue and cry abroad,’’ he said.

The PM said the country must salute the people of J-K for the courage they showed in coming out to vote in large numbers despite intimidation by militants.