Author:
Publication: Newsweek
Date: April 12, 2004
URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4661834/
Introduction: As he heads into nationwide
elections, India's prime minister takes credit for spurring both peace
and growing prosperity
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee was all smiles as he sat down for an exclusive interview with
NEWSWEEK's Sudip Mazumdar and Ron Moreau at his official residence in New
Delhi late last week. His top aides had just informed him that India's
GDP economic- growth rate in the last quarter was a whopping 10.4 percent
and that India's cricket team was soundly beating Pakistan in their first
test match in Multan. The 79-year- old Indian leader looked relaxed and
confident as he talked about his plans for a second term. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Do you have a new vision
for India?
Vajpayee: I see India becoming
a developed nation by 2020: economically strong, free of the problems of
underdevelopment and playing a meaningful role in the world as befits a
nation of more than 1 billion people. Our first priority is to speed up
our economic-growth rate to 8 percent on a more sustainable basis. We will
make India a service provider to the world, a major manufacturing hub and
a center of the knowledge economy. In the next five to 10 years, India
will be in a completely different orbit of development.
What do you consider to be your
greatest achievements during your six years in office?
Without sounding immodest, I think
we have succeeded in elevating India's aspirations and its capacity to
pursue and achieve big goals. What sounded difficult or impossible even
a few years ago is looking possible today. What we have achieved in IT,
telecoms, highway construction, the nationwide rural-roads program [and]
the spread of elementary education has no parallel in the past. Today the
young Indians who constitute 65 percent of our population are more ambitious,
more self-confident and more infused with a can-do spirit than ever before.
Our big multiparty coalition gave political stability. Peace and normalization
of relations with Pakistan was unthinkable earlier. All this has raised
India's standing in the eyes of the world community.
So you're confident you'll get another
five-year term?
The people of India have seen our
performance and are satisfied with it. We have earned their trust. We have
also placed before them our vision and our priorities for the future. By
and large, the mood in the country is that our government has not yet had
efficient time to accomplish its agenda and therefore deserves another
five-year term.
Are Muslims joining your party?
This is another instance of the
impossible becoming possible. Our Muslim brethren have seen for themselves
that our government has not been discriminating against them. This is the
beauty of democracy. If you are honest in your heart, no amount of propaganda
can forever sustain the myth that you have some hidden agenda. We have
only one agenda. And it is the agenda of development to benefit every Indian,
irrespective of their religion.
Can riots like the one that happened
in Gujarat in 2002 occur again?
No, they cannot. It is now the
entire nation's resolve not to let such tragedies recur.
Are India-Pakistan relations set
irrevocably on a path toward peace?
We have made a good beginning.
For my part, I can say that I have made every possible attempt to promote
peace and amicable relations between our two countries. This past January
in Islamabad we made another promising start. We would, of course, like
to ensure that this opportunity is not squandered. The India-Pakistan cricket
series has demonstrated how goodwill and friendship can be promoted between
the people of India and Pakistan. The political leadership of both countries
has to respond to these feelings.
What can India do to remove the
Kashmir conflict from being the biggest obstacle to peace?
The biggest obstacle to peace is
mistrust and suspicion. Once our two countries interact more regularly,
trade with each other and realize the benefits of peaceful coexistence,
then we will find solutions to every problem, including our differences
on Jammu and Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan have to work for this.
