Make Parliamentary approval mandatory for signing treaties: Advan

New Delhi, Aug 19 (UNI) Senior BJP leader L K Advani has suggested amending the constitution making it mandatory for the government to seek parliamentary approval before signing any treaties and agreements that affected the country's security, soverignty and geographical integrity.

In an interview to RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya, the BJP patriarch said at present it was not binding on the government of the day to seek such approval, be it the Indo-US nuclear pact or any other agreement with foreign powers.

''I feel if this is not done, the Government might 'compromise' on a sensitive issues like Jammu and Kashmir. It is necessary to make the government feel that every body has to be taken into confidence,'' he asserted.

On the logjam between the Left parties and the UPA Government, Mr Advani said the BJP did not believe in 'blind hatred' for the US like the communists. ''The BJP wants India and the US to fight terrorism together, but this friendship cannot be at the cost of national security and future alternatives,'' he said.

The former Deputy Prime Minister said, '' What the Prime Minister had done was bind the nation's hands by accepting the Indo-US nuclear accord which says future tests will be conducted with the consent of the US. The Government is not telling the countrymen the consequences of conducting nuclear tests if it conducts the tests. The PM, however, claims that India will be free to conduct future tests, but the treaty finalised says that in such an event the US can take back the nuclear fuel and equipment back. In any case, the power generation can only be after ten years and that too after being capable of meeting 10 per cent of the needs.'' He said the BJP supported the US vote against Iran on the nuclear issue because it was not in India's interest to have the Muslim nation as a nuclear weapon state. It was BJP and its previous avatar Jana Sangh which vehemently advocated making India a nuclear weapon state since 1966 and it was the NDA government which conducted the Pokhran tests in 1998.

He, however, gave credit to the Congress and the NDA regimes for propelling India to the nuclear club disregarding the restrictions imposed by the US and other countries.

Mr Advani recalled how Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha had opposed the Pokhran tests on the grounds that the West would slap all kinds of restrictions and sanctions. Former RSS ideologue the late K R Malkani had countered Dr Singh saying India should not shy away from becoming a nuclear nation owing to a fear of sanctions.

UNI