UPA compromising long term strategic n-interests: Rajnath

Bhopal, Sep 21 (UNI) Accusing the UPA Government of committing a mistake by compromising India's long term strategic interest in the ongoing talks on Indo-US nuclear deal, the BJP today vowed not to accept any compromise its 'atomic sovereignty' or its foreign policy.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, in his presidential remarks at the opening session of the three-day National Executive here, reiterated that the government should accept the BJP's demand for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to study the issue. To prevent any future recurrence, Constitution should be amended to ensure that the operationalisation of international commitments shall be only after Parliamentary approval. This would ensure that none of the present or future national interests can ever be mortgaged or compromised because of myopic vision of the Government and its negotiators, Mr Singh said.

Mr Singh said BJP's opposition to the deal was not for the sake of the 'virulent anti-Americanism' like the Left parties but driven by 'national pride and national interest'. India has had the best of relations with the USA during the NDA regime headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee which had initiated a 'tectonic shift' in the existing level of strategic cooperation but that did not prevent the country from conducting Pokhran tests braving economic sanctions.

"Under the NDA, India's diplomatic relations substantially improved not just with the USA but also other countries of the world. We will continue to do the same in the future also", Mr Singh remarked.

The BJP President said the Congress and the Left Front had opposed Pokhran tests in 1998 and reminded that the Left supported Chinese nuclear tests in 1964. Today the Left have suddenly turned supporters of India's independence in nuclear energy, he remarked.

"It is clear that both Congress and the Left parties have never been concerned about India's nuclear capability in the past or the present. They are only playing politics on the nuclear issue", he remarked saying that the BJP's opposition to the deal was total and uncompromising.

UNI