Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Indo-US nuclear deal may have crossed all the hurdles in US and on its way to become a law, but back home a political storm is brewing afresh over an Act that the BJP finds 'humiliating' and the Left have many an issue with.
The BJP, in particular, greeted the passage of the Act by the US Congress with a big thumbs-down, saying that the US Act, in fact, seriously compromised India's foreign policy besides debilitating its nuclear weapons capability.
The party urged the Government to reject the Act instead of accepting the humiliating conditionalties sought to be imposed on the country.
After a detailed discussion on the issue at the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha and former Union minister Arun Shourie told journalists that the US Act was aimed at capping and rolling back and eliminating India's nuclear weapons capability, including sub-critical tests and those for peaceful purposes.
"This will stymie India's technical advancement in vital spheres and an agreement under this legislation will bind India's future in perpetuity with no exit clause," the two leaders said. Sinha said as far as India was concerned, the statement made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on August 17 was binding whereas the US Act had seriously compromised India's independence on foreign policy and the deal has been made more unequal than ever before.
The Prime Minister should make a statement in Parliament on the US Act without any further delay rejecting the Indo-US Nuclear deal, he said.
"The Act passed by the US legislature was not acceptable to the BJP and its provisions fly in the face of assurances given by the PM to Parliament from time to time. Obviously, US President and his administration attached no importance to his assurances," according to the two leaders.
Sinha said India during the NDA regime was nowhere near this deal on hand and the previous government had refused these very conditionalities incorporated in the Indo-US nuclear deal. He also dared the government to place before Parliament and the media if they have any evidence about the previous government's negotiation for the same deal.
He said the BJP was on record in Parliament that such a deal would not bind the nation in future and that was the party's position. He said it was unfortunate that the government was 'using' the media to project as if this was the an end to the nuclear winter. "In fact, India's nuclear programme flourished indigenously with no outside help," Shourie remarked.
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