Clarify stand on Iran gas pipe, BJP tells govt

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today demanded that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government clarify its stand on the proposed Indo-Iran gas pipeline.

While Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar replied to a starred question in the Lok Sabha on the issue, the BJP felt that the minister had not addressed the contradiction between his own views and the views expressed by Prime Minister Manmoahn Singh on the pipeline.

"Aiyar has always maintained that the pipeline will go through, and that talks were progressing apace, yet the Prime Minister in an interview stated that there were some apprehensions with regard to the project," said BJP parliamentary party spokesperson VK Malhotra.

The Prime Minister in an interview to The Washington Post had said the project was fraught with risks and that Iran had certain international obligations, which it had not met for the project to take off, Malhotra added.

"Aiyar agreed that the Prime Minister had said those things and yet has not clearly stated that the government's position on the pipeline," said Malhotra.

"He was also not clear on how the pipeline is to be built and merely referred to some surplus foreign exchange that the government had, the minister did not state whether the money would indeed be used for constructing the pipeline," added Malhotra.

Aiyar, in fact, referred to Jaswant Singh's meeting with then US Secretary of State Strobe Talbot during the NDA regime, saying that it was Singh who by ruling out the pipeline had given in to the US pressure.

Malhotra denied the charge. "Aiyar cannot use Singh as a shield for the government's lack of clarity on the issue," he said. "The NDA government had its won issues with regard to the pipeline but the stand of the government was clear on the issue," he added.

"This is not the first time that there is such a contradiction within the Union Cabinet and if the opposition is taking advantage of the matter then the government should defend itself," he added.