Vajpayee asks voters to banish destabilisers to Oppn benches

“I have interacted with many Congress leaders but not one person levelled such personal charges,” he said, adding that the language used by Sonia Gandhi was unlike that used by those leaders. “Can those doubting my patriotism reply why Sonia Gandhi accepted the Indian citizenship 18 years after her marriage with the late Rajiv Gandhi,” Vajpayee asked.

On the sugar controversy, he said sugar was put under OGL under the Rao Government. “There is no question of ordering an inquiry into the sugar scam’ as there is no prima facie case,” hesaid.

In an informal chat with reporters after filing his papers, Vajpayee said the Kargil victory would be one of the poll planks but not the only issue in this elections.

“My Government not only took back every inch of our territory captured by Pakistani intruders in the Kargil sector but is now negotiating with China for the return of the territory it had captured,”he said.

Meanwhile, in his election broadcast on Doordarshan, Vajpayee appealed to voters to take the “destabilizers” to task by making them sit in the Opposition for five years.

“Our opponents came together to break the BJP-led Government but they did not remain together to make an alternative government. Their irresponsible action has once again imposed an untimely and costly election on you,” he said.

He called upon the people to “vote against irresponsibility and opportunism. If destabilization costs the country heavily, then make the destabilizers pay a heavy price for it.”

From the content of his speech, it is clearthat Vajapyee is banking on the stability factor and, of course, the Kargil conflict to pull the alliance through at the hustings. The Pokharan tests were mentioned in the same breath.

There was also a message for the minorities and the other weaker sections of the society, including women.

“A new India is born after Kargil,” he pointed out, adding, “An India whose 100-crore people are filled with a new sense of self-confidence and hope and faith. What I see wherever I go is a dreaming India, an achieving India, a winning India.”

The credit for India’s resounding victory in Kargil, or India’s success against sanctions imposed in the wake of the Pokharan nuclear tests, according to the Prime Minister, does not go to any party or individual. “It goes to our brave jawans and martyrs. It goes to our talented and hard-working farmers, workers, scientists and engineers. The credit goes to you, the patriotic people of India,” Vajpayee said.

“When some countries imposed economic sanctions against Indiaafter Pokharan,” he pointed out, “we once again stood firm, as befits a swabhimani’ Bharat. Our firmness paid, sanctions failed.”

Claiming that his 17-month-government was remarkably free from communal tension, Vajpayee sought to reassure the minorities. “My message to our sisters and brothers belonging to minority communities is: Your welfare and protection of all your legitimate interests is our responsibility.”