UPA action amounts to 'midnight deceit': BJP

New Delhi, Jul 10: Describing it as a 'midnight deceit', the BJP on Thursday, July 10 said the UPA government had cheated the people of the country by sending the draft nuclear safeguards accord to the International Atomic Energy Agency for its approval at a time when it had lost its majority. BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked where was the mandate to deal further on the issue for the UPA to send the draft to the Board of Governors of IAEA after the Left parties withdrew their support to the government.

He said the BJP wanted to know if the Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were treating the Indo-US nuclear deal as a private deal between the Prime Minister and the US President. ''This is an issue concerning constitutional propriety and the issue could not have been proceeded without taking Parliament into confidence.'' The issue even figured in yesterday's meeting of NDA leaders where the leaders felt that the Congress was seeking to create confusion after External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had assured to proceed on nuclear deal only after facing Parliament.

The NDA had urged that the government should seek vote of confidence in a week's time.

UNI