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My govt has been effective both at home and abroad: Vajpayee

''My government has been effective both at home and abroad. It is just that foreign policy successes get more media coverage. Domestic successes do not,'' Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in an interview to India Today.

Vajpayee said he was confident that talks with Pakistan would move towards 'some conclusion' following the signing of the Lahore Declaration and the memorandum of understanding during his visit to Lahore last month.

''Who could have imagined the Lahore Declaration a year ago? The declaration and the MoU have given a new direction to bilateral dialogue and confidence-building measures,'' he said.

Asked if he was for signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the prime minister said, ''The government's position on the CTBT has been made clear in Parliament and in the UN General Assembly. At this moment, there is nothing more to add. India is its own master.''

Vajpayee asserted that his government had not deviated from the continuity in the foreign policy. ''We have only given it a new focus. Our national security imperatives had to be met and recognised by others. We have met those imperatives,'' he added, in an obvious reference to India's nuclear tests.

Claiming that it was the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government which had initiated real reforms with a human face, he said, ''We have streamlined subsidies while protecting the poor. We have started the process of divestment. We have changed the thrust of development. We have initiated the process of decentralisation up to the panchayat level. These are firm steps towards real reforms.''

He said there was no conflict between swadeshi and liberalisation. ''As someone who subscribes to the basic philosophy of swadeshi, I believe in liberalisation.''

Vajapyee did not agree with the perception that the BJP was a 'pro-business party'. The BJP was, and is, a ''pro-people and an India-first party. It is because of this fact that we have been able to take hard decisions.''

He said he could look back at the achievements of his government during its one-year in office with satisfaction. ''We inherited the economy in a bad shape. We have met this challenge. The economy is on the road to recovery.'' His government had also proved its detractors wrong. ''They had smugly predicted this coalition would not last,'' he said.

UNI

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