NEW DELHI, 24 February 2004 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday said his Hindu fundamentalist-led coalition government would fight the upcoming election on a development platform rather than the explosive Ayodhya temple issue.

The prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has previously won support for its vociferous backing of the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a razed mosque.

But Vajpayee, on the final day of a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency of Lucknow, said the coalition would focus on development and improvements to infrastructure and basic amenities.

“The Ram temple issue is not a poll issue,” Vajpayee told reporters in Lucknow, capital of India’s key political province of Uttar Pradesh.

“Roads, electricity, water which affect average people were the issues on which provincial polls were fought and national polls will also be contested on these issues,” Vajpayee said, referring to state elections in December.

About 2,000 people died in nationwide sectarian rioting after the 1992 destruction of the 16th century Babri Mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.

Vajpayee said the temple construction issue is a subject “related to the sentiment of the people and it should be solved by all concerned in a peaceful manner. That is what we are trying to do,” he said.

But he said his party’s view, which was in favor of building the temple, had not changed. The matter is now being dealt with by the courts.

The BJP became a force to be reckoned with in national politics after supporting the temple construction campaign in the early 1990s. But the party put the issue on a backburner after coming to power at the head of a coalition government six years ago.

The premier also said his government was on its way to meeting an election promise to provide jobs to 10 million people.

“I can say with certainty that we have provided job opportunities for eight million people,” he said.

“Road construction projects are giving people jobs but no one is talking about that. Similarly large-scale construction activity across the country is giving people jobs but no one is counting this.”

The federal election is slated to be held in four phases from mid-April to early May.

Vajpayee said the country was taking necessary security measures in view of the transfer of nuclear knowledge from Pakistan to Iran, Libya and North Korea. “It is a serious issue. We are taking whatever steps necessary on the security front,” Vajpayee said.

“We hope that under the guidance of the United Nations a system will be developed to prevent such clandestine transfer of nuclear capability,” he said.

India, which also has atomic weapons, and other countries fear the nuclear secrets sold by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan could also fall into the hands of international terrorist groups.