Vajpayee calls for more courage to fight AIDS

Vajpayee inaugurated a first-of-its-kind AIDS workshop in India of 1,000 policymakers and activists amid warnings by the United Nations that the country of a billion-plus people must act immediately to avoid an AIDS catastrophe.

"HIV/AIDS is not only a grave global challenge. It is equally a national concern, one that demands effective and undelayed response," Vajpayee said.

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"In India, issues pertaining to public health do not normally find a place on the nation's political agenda. This is not so in other democracies where, sometimes, even elections are won or lost on the basis of health issues," he said.

"It is obvious that political parties in our country need to pay far greater attention to issues of health care than they do now."

While Vajpayee was short on specifics of how the government planned to contain AIDS, he noted that in other countries education had "empowered" young people and combatted the deadly disease.

He said the fight against HIV/AIDS "requires greater courage and commitment".

"It requires leadership that is ready to go to the heart of the problem and is ready even to go against the stream of public opinion," Vajpayee said.

Vajpayee's health minister, Sushma Swaraj, has drawn fire from AIDS activists for her criticism of "condom-centric" HIV prevention programmes.