New Delhi, November 7
Stung by reports of confusion emanating from the BJP over the party’s stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the party today sought to cast its response in stone and spelt out its four-point opposition to the 123 Agreement.
Three top leaders of the BJP — L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh and Jaswant Singh — today issued a statement giving the party’s final take on the nuclear deal. Thus the party’s opposition to the deal is final and irrevocable.
The BJP has put forward four points in opposition to the N-deal:
1. The UPA government has made “a strategic blunder” by turning the deal into “a kind of an icon of India’s relations with the US.”
2. “The BJP has consistently stood for close India-US cooperation and strategic partnership as between two equal sovereigns” — conveying the party’s conviction that the UPA government’s diplomatic engagement with Washington is not as “equals”.
3. The deal “compromises” India’s long term strategic programme, “neither will it help meet our energy needs of future”.
4. “Therefore, the BJP strongly recommends that this deal must be renegotiated and not hustled through as the UPA government is attempting to.”
The BJP statement made a mention of the fact that over the last few days, several people had called on Advani, Rajnath Singh and Jaswant Singh in connection with the nuclear deal. These included former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, US Ambassador David C Mulford and national security advisor M.K. Narayanan.
