By IANS
New Delhi : India’s chief opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Wednesday rejected overtures by the government and the US over the stalled nuclear deal, saying that the pact should be renegotiated as it “compromises” the country’s long-term strategic programme without contributing to energy security.
The BJP’s forceful repudiation of the deal, stalled due to fierce opposition by the Left parties, has extinguished the last glimmer of hope for building a cross-party national consensus on the contentious deal that is likely to be debated afresh in the winter session of parliament beginning Nov 15.
A meeting of the senior leaders of the BJP was held Wednesday at the residence of Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani to discuss the latest overtures made by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to persuade the main opposition party, seen as the initiator of improving relations between India and the US, to back the nuclear deal.
Despite a series of recent meetings of senior US envoys and key government figures with the BJP leaders, the BJP came out with a pointed four-point statement, accusing the ruling coalition of making a “strategic blunder” by making the deal “an icon of India’s relations with the US” which could compromise the country’s national security.
“We stand opposed to the deal because in our view it compromises long-term strategic programmes of India, vital for country’s security. Neither will it help meet our energy needs of the future,” said a party statement.
BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior leaders L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh signed the statement.
“Therefore, the BJP strongly recommends that this deal must be renegotiated and not hustled through as the UPA government is attempting to,” the statement said at the end of the core group meeting of the BJP attended by senior leaders.
While rejecting the deal, the party underlined that its opposition to the deal does not detract from the party’s commitment to strengthening India-US relations.
“The BJP has consistently stood for close India-US cooperation and strategic partnership as between two equal sovereigns,” the statement said.
National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and Indian Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar, key negotiators of the bilateral 123 pact, met Advani and BJP president Rajnath Singh Tuesday to persuade them to support the nuclear deal.
Earlier, US ambassador David C. Mulford met senior BJP leaders Advani, Rajnath Singh and Yashwant Sinha as well as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh.
Former US secretary of state and veteran diplomat Henry Kissinger had also met Advani to persuade him to back the nuclear deal. The party was also asked to back the deal by leading Indian community members in the US.
The BJP leaders took note of the persuasive efforts both by the US and the UPA government, but rejected the arguments in favour of the deal that aimed at ending decades-long nuclear isolation of India.
“In our view energy is secondary and strategic security the first priority,” said a senior BJP leader who attended the meeting.
“Moreover, there is uncertainty all around India, be it Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Myanmar. India has to take that into account. Supposing Pakistan breaks up tomorrow — it is full of mafia and drug lords – which of them will lay his hands on the nuclear bomb there can’t be said. We cannot be indifferent to our security needs,” felt some BJP leaders.
The BJP leaders also underlined the need for the “periodic testing of our nuclear arsenal to make sure how our delivery system is functioning,” according to sources.
The BJP noted that the US concern is limited to nuclear non-proliferation and strategic partnership. “If you see the statements of (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, she only talks of non-proliferation whereas Bush is singularly focused on strategic partnership,” the BJP leaders felt.
“Energy is therefore being overstated by this government. Moreover, proposed nuclear reactors will meet only three to five per cent of our energy needs,” said BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“This is just an attempt by Bush to ensure the success of his foreign policy. We tried to explain to US diplomats that the success or failure of the nuclear deal should not become the benchmark of lasting friendship with the US,” said Prasad.
The BJP parliamentary party will take a final call on whether to press for a vote or go for a discussion in parliamentary sans vote, Prasad said.
The Left also wants a discussion, but has not insisted on a vote in parliament on the nuclear deal.
The BJP leaders also rejected the premise of Brajesh Mishra, former national security adviser in the previous government of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has said in an interview that this was probably the best possible deal as the Clinton administration could not have offered such a deal.
Such comments had fuelled speculation that the party was speaking in different voices on the nuclear deal, with one section ready to back the deal. But the forceful statement rejecting the deal Wednesday put to rest such speculation.
The government has put the nuclear deal on hold in the face of uncompromising opposition to it by its Left allies, who fear that the deal may reduce India to a handmaiden of the US “imperial” interests.
The government has not, however, given up hope of forging a national consensus and will hold one more meeting with the Left leaders Nov 16 to break the logjam over the landmark agreement.