NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee cancelled engagements for the third day Tuesday due to ill health amid speculation he could be trying to escape the heat from political rivals.

“There has been some improvement in his condition. However, symptoms persist and he has been advised complete rest for two to three days,” said a statement from the 77-year-old premier’s office.

“He has upper respiratory tract infection,” it said. “This has been diagnosed as viral infection.”

Among the engagements called off Tuesday was a meeting with former Japanese premier Yoshiro Mori, who was delivering a message from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Vajpayee has been indisposed since Sunday, when he returned to New Delhi abruptly after cutting short a visit to his parliamentary constituency Lucknow.

Earlier this year, the government angrily denied a Time magazine report that Vajpayee was so ill he would fall asleep at meetings and could not remember the names of close advisers.

Sources within Vajpayee’s Hindu-nationalist BJP party say the prime minister could be cancelling meetings to show his anger at bickering within his coalition.

The premier is facing pressure from the Hindu right over his economic liberalisation drive, support for the United States and policies toward the Muslim minority after recent communal violence.

Vajpayee is likely to miss a scheduled meeting Wednesday with India’s military commanders in which he had been expected to discuss arrangements to pull back troops from the borders with Pakistan.

The Hindu right has stepped up pressure on Vajpayee to sack his national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra, a key moderate who is close to the premier.

Last week Giriraj Kishore, senior vice president of the BJP’s ideological mentor the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or World Hindu Council, accused Mishra of “putting India in the US lap.”—AFP