BJP slams UPA Govt on nuke deal panel

Bangalore, Sep 5 (UNI) Coming down heavily on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's decision to set up a committee under External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it was an 'insult to Parliament and the spirit of democracy.' Addressing newspersons here today, BJP National Vice-President and MP M Venkaiah Naidu, averred the move was highly objectionable and an insult to Parliamentary system of the country.

The deal was not a family or private affair between the Congress and the Left but a public issue concerning both sovereignty and future of the nation,'' he asserted.

''The decision to constitute a panel was nothing but an act of undermining Parliament which is in session,'' Mr Naidu fumed.

Opining both the Congress and Left had dragged themselves too far on the deal, Mr Naidu said the decision to form a committee was nothing but 'diversionary tactic' in an attempt to save their faces.

''When there is no question of meeting point between Congress and the Left parties on the issue, what is the need for constituting the panel by the UPA Government? Both the Congress and Left should patch-up on the issue or else it is better to pack-up,'' he said.

He criticised the Congress for lacking the art of governing and managing the coalition government 'which went too far in signing the nuclear deal without taking into confidence its own alliance parties on whose support it survived and also the opposition BJP.' ''The government has put the country in an awkward situation by signing the deal which has no mandate of Parliament.'' The deal was opposed by majority of Parliament members belonging to NDA, United National Progressive Alliance and the Left, he said.

Describing the deal as 'anti-national,' he urged the UPA Government to go for re-negotiation on certain terms after taking Parliament into confidence.

The three-day national executive committee meeting of the BJP scheduled to begin at Bhopal from September 23 would discuss the current political scenario arising out of the Opposition to the nuclear deal by the Left parties and also chalk out its strategy on the issue both inside and outside Parliament, he said.

UNI