The Hindu : National : There’s no horse-trading: Digvijay

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There’s no horse-trading: Digvijay

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh, who is also in charge of the party’s Uttar Pradesh affairs, on Thursday rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party’s allegations that the Congress was indulging in horse-trading to save the UPA government on the nuclear deal issue.

Mr. Singh said the Congress had never compromised on issues related to national interest for parochial political gains. He told journalists here that the issue was not whether the UPA government survived the July 22 trust vote or not; the important thing was that the deal was in the country’s interest.

Countering the BJP’s allegations, Mr. Singh said the Congress did not believe in horse-trading; in fact it was the saffron party which allegedly bought MLAs in Karnataka. He said it appeared that Leader of Opposition Lal Krishna Advani had handed over the BJP’s reins in U.P. to Chief Minister Mayawati and added that the BJP would be wiped out by Mr. Advani’s over-ambition.

Mr. Singh said the Congress had appealed to MPs cutting across party lines to support the nuclear deal in national interest. The conditions ingrained in the deal were better than what had been proposed when the NDA government was in power, he said. The former National Security Advisor, Brajesh Mishra, had supported the nuclear agreement, and even the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had backed the deal in private conversation.

Mr. Singh supported Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s remark in Amethi that many young MPs were in favour of the nuclear deal.

Mr. Singh said the right to conduct a nuclear test had not been taken away from India and permission for inspection would be granted for nuclear facilities which had been supplied fuel by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

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