Claiming political stability in the country now, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday said he was confident that his government would be the first coalition to complete its five-year term at the Centre.
"Ours is the first coalition government at the Centre which will complete its five-year term," he told the captains of industry at the FICCI platinum jubilee celebrations.
In three months from now the National Democratic Alliance government would have completed five years, if its first innings from March 19, 1998 was taken into account, Vajpayee said.
"We have demonstrated that coalition governments at the Centre can be stable, can work well, and can take the nation forward," he said.
Referring to the successful conduct of assembly elections, Vajpayee said: "We conducted free and fair polls in Jammu and Kashmir, braving all the odds. Gujarat, too, has voted yesterday, without any violent incidents and with a big voter turnout."
Maintaining there was now complete political stability in the country, Vajpayee said: "Stability is the crucial, if intangible, pre-condition for the success of all governmental and non governmental measures for economic and social development."
"These are not merely our achievements. These are the achievements of Indian democracy. They show the growing resilience of our democratic system," he said.
"This augurs well for the long-term outlook of the Indian economy."
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