BJP attacks Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, calls for review

NEW DELHI: The BJP has said that the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement ratified last week ‘seriously compromises’ the independence of India’s foreign policy, and wants the government to review the deal.

The BJP’s stand was delineated at a meeting of senior leaders on Sunday at the residence of former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee.

Later, at a press conference, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie said the act passed by the US Congress aims at “capping, rolling back, and eventually eliminating” India’s nuclear weapons capability.

Sinha and Shourie stressed the party’s contention that the principle of parity on which Prime Minister Singh placed so much emphasis has been abandoned. They said the act, as passed by the US legislature, is unacceptable to the BJP.

According to the BJP, the purpose of the act is to impose conditions that are more deleterious to India than those in the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The party said the deal imposes the conditions in perpetuity and makes no allowance for an exit clause.

The BJP said: “The US administration is bound to ensure that the bilateral 1-2-3 agreement, the IAEA safeguards agreement, the additional protocol and the NSG ‘consensus’ on the deal will be in line with the act of the US Congress.”

The BJP leaders said there is no assurance of uninterrupted fuel supply for India’s civilian reactors. India cannot reprocess used fuel or ship it back to the US unless Congress approves the reshipment. 

The BJP said India has been expressly forbidden from nuclear testing in future, even of the kind permitted by the CTBT.