By IANS
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday made it clear that it will not support the government on the India-US nuclear deal even as its partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were not willing to respond to its call to raise the Sethusamudram project in parliament.
A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met senior BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, the party made it clear that its “concerns on the nuclear deal have not been addressed”, and the 123 agreement in its present form is not acceptable.
Advani, leader of opposition, told the prime minister that the party’s “concerns on the nuclear deal have not been addressed”, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj told reporters here after a meeting of the BJP-led NDA at Advani’s residence.
Advani asked Manmohan Singh whether he could assure that India will be able to conduct nuclear tests after operationalising the deal but the prime minister did not make any commitment on this issue, Swaraj stressed.
India’s chief opposition, the BJP, has been demanding renegotiation of the deal as it thinks the 123 agreement with the US would adversely affect the country’s nuclear weapons programme and impinge upon its strategic autonomy.
Advani told coalition partners of his discussions with the prime minister on the nuclear deal. But it was decided that the deal will not top the party’s agenda in the winter session of parliament that began Thursday.
The nuclear deal will be debated in parliament Nov 27 after Manmohan Singh returns from Uganda where he will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting.
Instead of the nuclear deal, the violence in Left-ruled West Bengal tops the list of issues that the NDA will raise in parliament.
“We will seek suspension of Question Hour to take up the Nandigram issue,” said Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president Sharad Yadav after the NDA meeting.
Asked about other issues he said, “For the time being only the SEZ (that is, Nandigram) and the India-US civilian nuclear deal have been taken up.”
Asked specifically whether the NDA planned to take up the Sethusamudram or Ram Sethu issue, he said, “It is their (BJP’s) issue, they have to raise it.”
Yadav denied that the BJP brought up the Ram Sethu issue – relating to the proposed construction of a shipping canal in the sea between India and Sri Lanka – at the NDA meeting.
But Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Braj Kishore Tripathy said, “Yes, they had brought it up but we told them it is not an NDA issue.”
He also confirmed that the situation in Nandigram had taken precedence over the nuclear deal as far as issues for discussion were concerned.
Swaraj had announced Wednesday that the BJP had prioritised three issues for the winter session: the first being Nandigram, followed by the nuclear deal and the Ram Sethu.
The NDA meeting was chaired by Advani and attended by Yadav, Tripathy, Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi and Akali Dal leader S.S. Dhindsa. From the BJP, president Rajnath Singh, Jaswant Singh, Swaraj and Vijay Kumar Malhotra were present.