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BJP will never be a Hindu fundamentalist movement: Vajpayee

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said the Bharatiya Janata Party 'has never been and never will be a Hindu fundamentalist movement'.

"We have never had the narrow agenda of undermining India's pluralistic and secular system," Vajpayee said in an interview to Saudi-based English daily Arab News published on Thursday. "We believe in secularism, by which we mean Sarva Dharma Sambhava or equal respect for all faiths," he said.

Vajpayee said the BJP is a 'national party and a nationalist party. It cannot subscribe to any narrow ideology based on discrimination that is repugnant to traditional national culture'.

"We are wedded to the goal of prosperity and welfare for all our citizens irrespective of their caste, creed, language and religion," he said.

Asked about India's pledge that it would never use nuclear weapons first nor would it direct them against non-nuclear nations, the prime minister said the imperatives of its complex security environment had compelled India to develop nuclear weapons.

"But we regard our nuclear weapons as a credible deterrent and not as instruments of aggression," he said.

Dismissing the suggestion that India had 'over-reacted' to the Pakistani incursions in Kargil, he said it was a 'necessary act of protection of our national security'.

Vajpayee recalled that in spite of the 'perfidy' at Kargil he had taken yet another peace initiative by inviting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to Agra last year. "Not only was the opportunity not grasped by Pakistan; we have been subjected since then to the most violent acts of terrorism sponsored by Pakistan, including an assault on Parliament and on the assembly of J&K in Srinagar," he said.

"It is for Pakistan now to re-establish trust and confidence by first stopping its sponsorship of cross-border terrorism and dismantling the infrastructure that supports terrorism directed against India," he said. "Only then can India resume a dialogue with Pakistan."

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