The BJP moved a privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in both Houses of Parliament for "misleading the House" on the provisions of the 123 agreement. |
Deputy Leader of Opposition VK Malhotra moved the motion in the Lok Sabha while Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie moved it in the Rajya Sabha. |
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The motions follow US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack's statement that the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement would be terminated if India tested a nuclear weapon. |
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The BJP, according to Sinha, believes that the US decision-making process is "far more transparent than in India" and therefore the party is more convinced of the state department spokesperson's statement than the the prime minister's. |
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"We are absolutely amazed at the way the government of India is misleading the people. We called the prime minister's statement a bundle of lies and half-truths. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement is more of the same," said Sinha. |
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"It does not do anything for the prestige of the country for its prime minister to be contradicted by a flunkey of the State Department, particularly if the state department official is right," said Sinha. |
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He said the Indo-US deal had a history of legislation in the US, starting from the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954, the US nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty of 1978 and the Hyde Act of 2006. |
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He said these were part of a continuum designed to prevent India from pursuing a strategic weapons programme. "The sole purpose of this deal is to cap, roll back and eliminate India's nuclear programme," he said. |
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"This deal will also lead to an ultimate deterioration of Indo-US ties since the provisions of the agreement are designed to humiliate India," he said. |
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"We want a full discussion on the deal under Rule 184 in the Lok Sabha and Rule 168 in the Rajya Sabha, both of which will lead to voting on the issue," he added. |
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