Pressing in the point that the bluff of ``international blackmailers'' should had been called, Thakre said that the tests had also shown that ``the government meant business'' and that it was ``done in the interests of the country'' as the government doesn't survive on populist action, he told in an interview to a private TV channel.

Thakre said, ``Fortunately people's perceptions of the government have changed, now this government means business. They can deal with the foreigner also, they cannot afford to blackmail India'', a press release from the TV network said.

On the imposition of sanctions on India following the nuclear tests, he said, ``These things come but we can work on them. It's the substance that matters, whether we will be able to solve the people's day-to-day problems.""That is going to be the basis of the perception of the people,'' Thakreadded.

On the term ``the new BJP'' coined at the party's recent national council meeting at Gandhinagar were he took over as party president, he said it was only a response to the fact that BJP is today the ruling party, and that ``in our thinking there is no change''.

Thakre said a new responsibility has come on the party which till recently was an Opposition party. ``Now we are a ruling party. And again we are heading a coalition government. We have to take all these parties with us. We have to take the country with us. Therefore, that attitude we have also to develop. Learn to work with others.''

Asked to describe the ideology of the ``new BJP'' in cultural terms, the party president said ``It can be described in many ways. Our country is not a new country. It is a historical country with a history of more than 5,000 years and during these years we have developed a style of life, certain norms, which are our guiding principles.''