BJP sees no poll issue in nuke deal
New Delhi, Aug. 28 (PTI): The BJP believes the Indo-US nuclear deal cannot become an election issue if snap polls take place.
Rather, its hawkish stance towards Pakistan in the light of terrorist attacks in India by suspected Islamic militants can be a potent electoral tool, a senior BJP leader said.
"The deal, as a matter of fact, can never become an issue in elections," the BJP leader, who did not want to be named, said.
He admitted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has received overwhelming support from the middle class in particular for the civil nuclear cooperation with the United States.
"But it is his government's appeasement politics that we can potentially target to reach out to the majority Hindus," the leader said.
Terrorist strikes, the BJP feels, vindicate its contention that the Congress-led government has "failed" to rein in the scourge.
Sources in the Sangh Parivar say both the BJP and the RSS agree that the saffron party need not take an extreme anti-American position like the Left.
"Politically also, any extreme stand against the US and the West, when there concepts of global village and market economy have become increasingly popular among our core middle-class supporters, is not useful," another party leader said.
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