BJP predicts tussle will lead nowhere

NEW DELHI: Watching the drama on nuke deal from the sidelines, the BJP views it as a ‘tamasha’ that is not going to lead anywhere. “The UPA does not have the courage to go ahead, the Left does not have the courage to withdraw support,” said a BJP leader.

Party president Rajnath Singh said that for the past four years the Left parties have been threatening the government on pretexts such as the nuke deal or inflation but have never carried it out. “They have tasted power for the last four years and it is difficult for them to abandon it on an issue,” he said.

Singh denied reports of change in the party’s stand on the deal. “Our stand remains unchanged. We are opposed to the deal in the present form as it is not in the interest of the country,” he added. 

BJP vice-president Yashwant Sinha, echoing Singh’s sentiments, said the deal would have to be renegotiated. On the present tussle between UPA and Left, he said, “It is a contest between two notoriously undependable parties. The prime minister has blinked in the past and he might blink again. The Left has also blinked in the past and might do so once again.”

The BJP also does not see the deal coming through soon, whatever the UPA may decide. At the most, they would go to the IAEA and finalise the agreement, but July and August are holidays in Europe and US and after that different countries would take their own time to examine the deal and take a decision. “There are non-proliferation advocates like the Scandinavian countries and there is the inscrutable China, which have to be taken into account,” said a leader.

s_rajesh@dnaindia.net