NEW DELHI, April 12: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Monday moved to tone down his party's aggressive Hindu nationalist stance and recommitted India to resolving differences with Pakistan through dialogue.
The 79-year-old, whom analysts believe is trying to go down in history as a peacemaker despite his Hindu rightwing roots, struck a conciliatory tone in an interview published Monday in the Times of India ahead of parliamentary elections starting April 20.
"Indianness and the Hindu way of life are the same, but I prefer Indianness," Vajpayee said, referring to his Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) embracing of Hindu nationalism - known as Hindutva, or Hindu way of life.
Vajpayee, now seen as a moderate, admitted to differences with his deputy, the hawkish Lal Krishna Advani, 76. "Yes there are differences. Sometimes, he has his way, sometimes I do. But it is only on issues," the premier said.
But Vajpayee also defended his deputy, saying he was not the "hardliner" he was made out to be and that contrary to media speculation Advani was supportive of India's peace moves with Pakistan. Asked if the BJP had changed since it was set up in 1980, Vajpayee said: "Circumstances have changed us and in turn we have changed circumstances."
The BJP, which won just two seats in parliament in 1984, rose to power on the back of an aggressive pro-Hindu campaign to build a temple on the ruins of a razed mosque in the northern pilgrimage town of Ayodhya.
But recently it has put the issue on the backburner, and in campaigning for the upcoming polls Vajpayee and Advani have stressed that they favour a negotiated settlement to the row between Hindus and Muslims over the site - whereas in earlier elections they vowed the temple would be built at all costs.
On the current peace moves with Pakistan, Vajpayee attributed recent statements by President Pervez Musharraf threatening to quit talks with India if progress was not made on the Kashmir dispute to "domestic" problems. -AFP
