India has made big strides under Vajpayee: Baalu

Union Minister for Environment and Forest T R Baalu on Tuesday in Lok Sabha stoutly defended Vajpayee government's performance during the debate on the no-confidence motion.

The senior Dravida Munnetra Kazgham leader was speaking after Nationalist Congress Party leader P A Sangma slammed the government.

Baalu, who belongs to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, reaffirmed his party's commitment to secularism, its opposition to the Uniform Civil Code and the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Complete Coverage of the No-confidence Motion

Baalu's support to the government allayed apprehension among the treasury benches on how the DMK would conduct itself during the voting on the no-confidence motion.

Contending that it was ' Indian democracy ', which had won during the last parliamentary election, he reeled off statistics to prove the government's positive performance in various sectors.

India's inflation was down to 3.4 per cent and the country was now the sixth largest foodgrain exporter in the world, he said No Indian citizen, he added, had been 'touched' by the long spell of drought in the country.

He said India's infrastructure has improved, citing the growth in telecom sector and the various highway projects.

He gave much of the credit to his senior ministerial colleague Murasoli Maran (now ailing), adding that there was commitment towards national integration and employment opportunities.

He also pointed out the Centre was helping the states financially and had created a corpus for providing them easy loans for developmental work.

Baalu also made an impassioned plea for giiving Tamil the status of a classical language and making it an official language in the Constitution.

He expressed his party's stand against POTA and pointed out that Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member Vaiko was in jail because of the Act.