By IANS
New Delhi : Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani, who surprised many this week by expressing guarded support to the India-US nuclear deal, Thursday reversed his stance and said the agreement would “impair India’s nuclear weapons programme”.
“I would like to emphasise that the provisions of the Hyde Act militate against India’s sovereignty – in particular, in regard to the conduct of our foreign policy,” he said.
“When enforced, they will seriously impair our nuclear weapons programme and hereby jeopardize our strategic objectives,” Advani told the BJP parliamentary party meeting Thursday morning.
The former deputy prime minister had told a newspaper Sunday: “So far as the BJP is concerned, if it is in national interest, then we have no objection to a strategic partnership with the US.”
In his interview he had also suggested that his party would have no objection to the nuclear agreement “if the government amends the Indian Atomic Energy Act to ensure strategic independence and non-hindrance in reactor fuel supplies”.
Advani’s remarks had surprised many in his party.
Explaining his view to the party, he said: “Actually it was intended to clarify how the BJP’s opposition to the agreement stems from considerations of pure national interest, and not from any kind of anti-Americanism which may be motivating the leftist parties.”
Talking to reporters later, BJP spokespersons Sushma Swaraj and Vijay Kumar Malhotra vehemently denied that Advani was forced to revise his statement because other leaders were unhappy with his open advocacy of “strategic partnership with the US”.
Advani also attempted to smoothen the ruffled feathers of party colleagues, former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha and former central minister Arun Shourie who were leading the charge against the government for allegedly compromising India’s sovereignty and strategic superiority through the 123 agreement.
Referring to the remarks made by Sinha and Shourie, he said: “Each of the statements has been fully deliberated upon and approved by the senior most leaders of the party under the guidance and in the presence of (former prime minister) Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“These are the statements that my colleagues, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, were asked to release to the media. These statements embody the party’s considered view on every aspect of the deal. There is no change in that position.”