New Delhi
3 August 2007
Two years and two days of negotiations have produced a text of the
123 Agreement that raises more questions that it answers, the BJP said. The party
flagged its "serious concerns" over certain terms of the nuclear pact which would
adversely impact India's nuclear weapons programme.
Former Minister of Finance and External Affairs Yashwant Sinha on Friday told this
newspaper that the apprehensions of his party, that the civilian nuclear cooperation
agreement with the United States will inhibit India's nuclear weapons programme,
remained, and those apprehensions have been further confirmed after a careful reading
of the text of the 123 Agreement.
"Many of the reservations that we had expressed earlier are still oustanding and after
looking at the text of the 123 Agreement I can only say today that we have serious
reservations with regard to this agreement," Mr Sinha said after the BJP top brass met at
former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence in the evening.
He said: "Mr Vajpayee had issued a statement in July 2005 when this deal had come to
our notice, in which he had expressed his serious concern regarding India's nuclear
weapons programme and he had said that the whole purpose of this deal is to somehow
restrict India's nuclear weapons programme. After two years and a lot of toing and froing
between the two governments and the final agreement which has emerged I can say that
that fear remains, it has in fact multiplied, because we are concerned about the impact
that this agreement will have on our nuclear weapons programme."
Mr Sinha asserted that the Hyde Act will supersede all else because the Hyde Act is the
law of the US and the 123 Agreement flows from the Hyde Act. "So how can you accept
the agreement and disown the Act?" he wondered aloud.
He suggested that the nuclear pact will restrict India's options, in particular the option of
conducting further nuclear tests. "The government did not accept our [views then.] Today
also our concern is that this agreement will directly impact on our nuclear weapons
programme," he said.
He went on to add that the BJP looked forward to a debate on this issue in the monson
session of Parliament, beginning August 10. "We will place our concerns in that debate,"
he said. "The Prime Minister did not not touch on our concerns in his reply [last year].
Even then we had said in the Rajya Sabha that we are not satisfied with his reply."
Mr Sinha, who will script the formal response of the party, said that a written statement
will be issued on Saturday. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani and Leader
of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh also attended the meeting. BJP
President Rajnath Singh and former Union minister Arun Shourie were indisposed.
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