The Hindu : National : No change in BJP’s stand on nuclear deal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 06, 2007
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National

No change in BJP’s stand on nuclear deal

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: There is no change in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s stand on the India-United States nuclear deal despite a number of meetings the top leaders have had with U.S. Ambassador David Mulford.

On Monday, Mr. Mulford met the former External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, for 90 minutes. He was accompanied by two officials from the American Embassy.

After the meeting, Mr. Sinha told The Hindu that signals emanating from a section of the media that the BJP was about to change its stand on the deal were “not correct.” He said he and Mr. Mulford “met and exchanged views.” Mr. Sinha said he reiterated the BJP’s apprehensions on the country’s strategic nuclear weaponisation programme. The party was not prepared to support a deal that would jeopardise that programme as well as its future need to test nuclear weapons. On Sunday evening, the party’s senior leadership met at the residence of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani to review what transpired at Mr. Mulford’s meetings with Mr. Advani, party president Rajnath Singh and the former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra. That meeting was to have continued on Monday but has been postponed to Tuesday.

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