BJP to work for Parliamentary consensus against nuclear deal

New Delhi, Aug 1 (UNI) The BJP today averred that it would work with Communists and other interested parties in Parliament to come out with a common resolution opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal to respond and clear the confusion over the US assertions made at various US fora on the deal.

Senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters after the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting here that the assertions in various US fora that their intentions were to curb, control and rollback the nuclear weapons programme confirmed the worst fears harboured by the people of India. ''At this juncture, it would not be wise or proper for the Parliament to remain a mute spectator. If there is no agreement on the issue from the Communists and other parties, the BJP would go it alone and move the resolution.'' He said the BJP was in the process of preparing the draft resolution with other parties on the issue and the resolution would examine the documents available in black and white like the agreement, Prime Minister's statements and assurances in both Houses of Parliament and voice nation's perspective in response to the assertions made in the US Congress and Senate. ''There should be no confusion and ambiguity on our part,'' he said.

According to the deal, India will have to close down the Cirus reactor which supplies one third of weapons grade plutonium and there is no mention of where this will be substituted. ''Pakistan has no restrictions and they can go ahead. India cannot be caught in such a situation,'' he said.

He said with the kind of restrictions sought to be imposed by the US for getting the deal through and if India cannot do away with such clauses, the agreement was not even worth the paper it was written on and it should be rejected outright.

He said the whole world could not do a wee bit against India despite its refusal to budge on signing of various multilateral agreements like NPT and CTBT because of its impeccable non-proliferation record. ''Having resisted all these years in the troubled years, is it proper for the country to fall into the bilateral treaty which has no escape routes?'' Mr Sinha also dismissed media reports suggesting that the UPA government was only signing a treaty finalised by the NDA government. ''This is absolutely rubbish. There was not even a suggestion asking for separating the nuclear programme between civil and military to us because they knew it would not be acceptable to us,'' he asserted.

He said after the declaration to the intention to sign the treaty by India, there were too many concessions offered by the US which was seeking to impose fresh conditions one after the other.

''It may be fair for them to act in their interest but India can't agree to such conditions in its national interest,'' he said.

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