NDA To Continue Reforms If Re-elected, Says Vajpayee

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New Delhi, April 25: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday declared that the NDA government, if re-elected, will continue its agenda of reforms focussing on infrastructure development and help textiles, IT-hardware and heavy engineering sectors of industry go global further.

“It is premature to talk about the next Budget,” he said in an interview to PTI editors during which he lashed out at Congress for its criticism of government’s disinvestment programme and its promise to create one crore employment opportunities.

Conceding that the current Lok Sabha elections were not a “no contest”, he nevertheless asserted that he had no reason to worry and saw no cause for Congress to be happy because exit polls show a narrowing gap between it and the NDA.

Unfazed by the exit polls, Mr Vajpayee said the elections were going as per BJP’s calculations and he was hopeful that the NDA would get more than 300 seats, though he did not not share the optimism of some of his party colleagues that the BJP would get that figure on its own.

He also asked the Congress the basis for its promise to create one crore employment opportunities a year in its manifesto after the main Opposition party had dubbed the NDA’s promise as day dreaming.

During the interview the PM spoke on various issues like reduction of poverty, disinvestment programme, outsourcing and plans to strengthen the manufacturing sector.

Mr Vajpayee said a his government would launch a novel initiative to bridge the rural-urban divide through a scheme called PURA (provision of urban amenities in rural areas) programme in 10,000 rural clusters across the country.

He said the government’s vision was to make India a global hub for manufacturing. “Not long ago several experts had written off India’s capabilities in manufacturing. However, in recent years many sectors of our economy have successfully restructured themselves to attain global competitiveness.

Referring to Indian companies that inducted new technologies and management practices to popularise the “Made in India” brand around the world, he said “we would like to help Indian industry to replicate the success in many more areas such as textiles, IT-hardware, heavy engineering, etc.”