Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday said the troop deployment on the borders sent a "strong message" to Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism and would make sure that it "works".
"I can tell you that the message is working. We'll make sure that it works," he told the captains of industry at the FICCI Platinum Jubilee celebrations in Delhi.
"We were forced to deploy our troops on the borders to send a strong message to our western neighbour," he said, adding the message was "clear and simple" that the government was determined to end cross-border terrorism.
"The message was, and it continues to be, clear and simple: that we are determined to end cross-border terrorism and to protect the unity and integrity of India, whatever it takes," he said.
Recalling the audacious December 13 attack on Parliament last year, Vajpayee said, "Indeed today is the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on our Parliament, which forced us to take that decision."
Vajpayee's assertion assumes significance in the face of Musharraf's claims on Thursday that New Delhi spent nearly $1.5 billion in its military standoff with Islamabad to achieve nothing.
Claiming political stability in the country now, Vajpayee also 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 said. "We have demonstrated that coalition governments at the Centre can be stable, can work well, and can take the nation forward."
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 on Thursday, 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 for the Indian economy."
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