The Hindu : Front Page : No differences in party on nuclear agreement: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

No differences in party on nuclear agreement: BJP

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s stand on the nuclear deal with the United States stands and there are “no differences” on this in the party, the top leadership asserted here on Tuesday.

While party president Rajnath Singh confirmed that ahead of the nuclear debate in Parliament, the central leadership decided to meet once again to discuss in detail the stand on the deal and fine-tune it.

On August 31, the party’s core group is scheduled to meet and the deal is likely to dominate the session.

Immediately after the text of the 123 agreement was made public, senior leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie articulated the party’s view on the basis of a consensus arrived at a meeting at the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s residence. A party statement on August 4 said the BJP was “unable to accept this [nuclear] agreement as finalised,” as it was “an assault on our nuclear sovereignty.”

However, on August 12, after meeting U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani told The Hindu that he told the Senator that the party’s major objection to the agreement was to the Hyde A ct and not to the agreement itself.

Talking to a newspaper in Hyderabad on August 26, Mr. Advani reportedly said his party would not object to the deal if Indian laws were amended, ostensibly to counteract the Hyde Act. An impression was thus created that the BJP was talking in two voices on the subject.

Mr. Sinha told The Hindu on Tuesday:

“Whatever we said [on August 4], we did on the basis of consensus in the party. On that day itself we made it clear that our objections were not because of some anti-Americanism. We said the party would like a joint parliamentary committee to look into the agreement clause-by-clause.

"After this, the matter should come back to Parliament for approval.

“Finally, the Constitution should be amended to make it mandatory for the government to get international treaties relating to security matters ratified by Parliament.

“There is no contradiction between the August 4 statement and Mr. Advani’s Hyderabad statement. It is unfair to try and pit me against Mr. Advani as a section of the media is now doing.”

Mr. Sinha said the BJP had spelt out its objections to the 123 agreement which, it emphasised, had to be read along with the Hyde Act and U.S. Atomic Energy Act.

Now that a suggestion had been made by Mr. Advani (it was also made by The Hindu in an article on August 20) that India could counter the effects of the Hyde Act by amending its own laws, notably the Atomic Energy Act, Mr. Sinha saw no contradiction in this view and that of the party stated immediately after the text of the 123 agreement was made public.

Those discounting the adverse effect of the Hyde Act should know that the United States had invoked its domestic laws to withdraw all cooperation with India in the civilian nuclear field after the 1974 Pokhran I test by India, he pointed out.

“Different from Left”

The BJP’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, V.K. Malhotra, reiterated that their opposition to the deal was on grounds very different from that of the Left. The BJP was not opposed to closer ties with the U.S. or joint military exercises. For the party, the sovereign right of the country to decide on conducting a nuclear test was a major issue.

Mr. Sinha said: “The July 18, 2005 joint statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George Bush, India’s separation plan for civilian and military reactors, the 123 agreement, the Hyde Act and other documents must all be seen and read together.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page