The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said the revelations made in a letter written by United States President George Bush had clearly proved its apprehensions that by signing the agreement India’s nuclear sovereignty would be undermined.
Speaking at the BJP’s national executive meet, which started here today, party president Rajnath Singh said: “The nuclear deal has also proved that it was the Indian government which concealed the facts. It is here the prime minister consciously misled the country, all the political parties and the Indian Parliament.”
“Does a minority government have the moral right to commit itself to an international treaty that involves issues related to national security and sovereignty,” he questioned, saying that for the sake of nuclear deal, the government had completely twisted the truth and engaged in various acts of misdemeanour, which included the purchase of votes during the vote of confidence to misleading the country. Singh further said: “The agreement does not, however, transform these political commitments into legally binding commitments.”
He also wondered whether by agreeing to terms of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the country had wilfully converted its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing into multilateral international commitment. Moreover, “if either Pakistan or China conducts a nuclear test that might threaten our regional strategy and security arrangement, then would not our right to conduct a nuclear test in response to that be seriously compromised?”
Making it clear that the BJP’s opposition to the deal was different from other Opposition parties, especially the Left parties, Singh said: “We are in favour of better relations with the US and other countries.”
“We are also in favour of nuclear and political co-operation with the US. Our opposition is only limited to those unbalanced positions in the deal that endanger the nuclear sovereignty of India.”
Rising inflation: Singh said, “The common man has already started feeling the pinch of rising prices. Even if the rate of inflation has crossed 12 per cent, it does not represent the reality. if the prices of the commodities of daily use are taken into account, then the rate of inflation may well cross the 20 per cent mark.”
“This means that the common man is actually burdened much more than what these figures show. We are making efforts to expose the real picture of the economic policy of the government before the country,” he added.
Foreign policy: “The UPA government’s series of failures on the foreign policy front continues unabated. The manner in which cross-border terrorism has been gaining ground, it should automatically become a critical part of our foreign policy,” said Singh. “Today, the manner in which the centres of terrorism are being operated from across the border, defiantly and clearly reflect the failure of the foreign policy,” he pointed out.
