By IANS
New Delhi : Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha has said there was no confusion in his party’s stance over the India-US nuclear deal and if it comes to power the deal would be re-negotiated after amending domestic laws.
Sinha also insisted that senior party leader L.K. Advani was misinterpreted in the media over his remarks that domestic laws can be changed to protect India’s interest. He said it was a suggestion that the party could examine.
“Advani said this is a suggestion which is worth examining. Now, we will examine it,” Sinha said in an interview to Karan Thapar’s “Devil’s Advocate” programme on CNN-IBN.
“It’s only a suggestion. If it works, fine. If it does not work, fine,” Sinha said in the interview that is to be aired on Sunday.
The BJP said it would oppose the nuclear agreement between India and the US because the Hyde Act passed by the US Congress in 2006 would limit New Delhi’s strategic options.
According to Sinha, Advani’s remarks that the 123 agreement would be accepted if the government amends the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, does not contradict the party’s stance.
“I am convinced that he has not contradicted himself,” Sinha said, adding that it was a section of the media that was campaigning for the deal and creating confusion.
Referring to the party’s proposed amendments in the domestic law, he said: “You could incorporate India’s sovereign right to test in its supreme national interest.
“If another country’s legislation is denying it (testing) you can assert it by amending your laws. We should also say that once we receive (fuel) supply it will not be returned.”
He said the reprocessing right has been postponed and all kinds of condition attached to it in the present agreement. “(According to it), arrangements and procedures will be determined in future. Changing India’s laws means 123 will be renegotiated in the light of changes in our laws.”
The former foreign minister also said the BJP would re-negotiate the deal if it was voted to power.
“We had agreed if the deal has to go through in its present form, we have decided it as unaccepted (it will be unacceptable). Then obviously it flows from it, logically we will reconsider and re-negotiate it.
“If the present government is not renegotiating it, we will do it.”
Differentiating his party’s stand on the deal from that of the Left, Sinha said: “What we are saying is in our national interests, not anti-American feelings. For example we are not opposed to the naval exercises.”
The Left parties have called for protest marches against the scheduled quadrilateral naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal, involving the US, Japan, Australia and Singapore, this month.