NEW DELHI, March 22: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday assured his political allies that his Hindu nationalist BJP would not stray from the pledged secular agenda of India’s coalition government.

The allies of his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) following the assurance also expressed their faith in Vajpayee, ending a looming political crisis facing the premier’s multi-party administration in New Delhi.

“The NDA reaffirmed its faith in the common agenda to be implemented with greater vigour under the leadership of Vajpayee,” Defence Minister George Fernandes said following a meeting on Friday of the coalition partners.

“The meeting reasserted that this common agenda is the bulwark of democracy, secularism and political stability in the country,” said Fernandes, NDA’s convener.

Vajpayee cobbled together the NDA government on the basis of the secular common agenda in 1999, which vowed not to pursue hardline Hindu policies of some of the partners of the BJP party.

A section of the coalition, however, in recent days said the BJP was drifting towards some of the communally-explosive projects of its ideological Hindu mentors.

The BJP’s difficulties have become so serious since its defeat in regional elections last month prompting some commentators to predict early national elections within a year.

On Thursday night, the BJP suffered a major embarrassment when it failed to push through a tough anti-terrorism bill in parliament’s upper house.

Many of its coalition partners too had criticized the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), which gives the security forces unfettered powers.—AFP