Congress indulding in self-destabilisation game with US: Advani

Bhopal, Sep 23 (UNI) Accusing the Congress of pushing through the Indo-US nuclear deal without a mandate in Parliament to operationalise it, senior BJP leader L K Advani today charged the ruling party of being hellbent on going ahead with the deal, knowing fully well that the government could fall because of the 'standoff'.

Addressing the concluding session of the three-day National Executive, the senior leader said the Congress had no commitment towards democracy or the coalition dharma. He said the party was pushing through the deal with the hope that it would emerge victorious with a bigger strength in the Lok Sabha.

The Leader of the Opposition said the Congress was a past master in the game of 'self destabilisation'. The UPA government wished to put the blame on others and seek the people's mandate on the basis of a lie -- that it alone wanted India's development and energy security while others were opposing the nuclear deal.

He said the BJP would have to counter this 'mischievous and self serving' propaganda and educate the people that the party was not opposed to India's energy needs but was wedded to the goal of making the country a developed nation.

''We should tell the people how the Congress was compromising on national security through the flawed and unequal energy security deal with the United States,'' he said.

The Congress leadership wanted to undo the gains of Pokhran II by effectively agreeing to roll back and ultimately eliminate the nation's nuclear capability, he said. When India conducted the nuclear test in May 1998, both Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh opposed it. '' No wonder, they have succumbed to US pressure to accept the NPT through the backdoor even though every Indian PM, from Indira Gandhi to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had refused to sign this discriminatory treaty'', he said.

Mr Advani said a proud and self-respecting India should never accept such an infringement on sovereignty.

''India is not Pakistan to mortgage its sovereignty to America'', Mr Advani remarked.

Asserting that the BJP wanted friendly relations with the US on 'equal terms', he said, '' we want to catch the nuclear energy bus without getting off from the nuclear weapons bus'', adding that the Congress wanted to become a 'subordinate power' in the unipolar world.

UNI