The BJP today demanded that the government call a session of Parliament within a week to enable the opposition to move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for misleading the House on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
After a news report made public a letter written by the US State Department to a member of Congress, the senior leaders of the BJP, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, accused Singh of misleading the country on the issue.
“The State Department disclosures have confirmed our worst fears. India cannot escape the rigours of the Hyde Act. It is now crystal clear that India will lose the right to conduct a nuclear test forever as a result of this agreement,” Sinha said.
He claimed the revelations in the US Administration’s letter to the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee leave no doubt that this deal does not contain any binding commitments by Americans and others regarding fuel supplies and technology transfer.
“Information given by the government of India and the American Administration are diametrically opposite to each other,” Sinha claimed, adding that the UPA government had been propagating falsehood on the issue.
“In effect, I would say, the US got the substance of the deal and we got the semantics,” he added. Shourie claimed that the letter “nailed” Singh’s statement in Parliament that he would not allow foreign inspectors to roam around in Indian nuclear facilities.