The Hindu : Front Page : NDA briefed on nuclear agreement

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Friday, Jul 27, 2007
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NDA briefed on nuclear agreement

Special Correspondent

BJP response after seeing text

NEW DELHI: As part of its efforts to evolve a political consensus on the civilian nuclear agreement with the United States, the Manmohan Singh Government on Thursday briefed senior National Democratic Alliance leaders.

Later, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media that the party would be able to give a “structured response” only after the text of the agreement was available in the public domain.

Besides the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, those present at the interaction included BJP president Rajnath Singh and the former Ministers, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie. The former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, was also present.

The Government side was represented by Dr. Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and the Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy.

After Mr. Narayanan and Mr. Menon outlined the agreement’s salient features and Mr. Mukherjee explained the political rationale, Mr. Mishra, Mr. Sinha and Mr. Shourie did most of the talking. The questions and doubts to the Government were in the genre of ‘are you sure the Americans will not pull a fast one on India?’

Traditional distrust

Informed sources said the questions were general (in the absence of the text) and had to do with the traditional distrust of the Americans. For instance, one of the NDA members wanted to know what was there to prevent Washington from squeezing New Delhi after massive investments were made on nuclear reactors. Dr. Singh’s answer was that it was an inherent risk in every single international trade transaction.

Mr. Prasad said the party’s response to the agreement would be predicated on a judgment as to whether the assurances given by the Prime Minister to Parliament were fulfilled.

The BJP was concerned with safeguarding (a) strategic security (b) national sovereignty and (c) independence in foreign policy, he said. However, his party was in favour of “amity” between India and the U.S. and the deal should not be the sole criterion for judging the India-U.S. relationship.

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