New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday defended the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement with some strong words, asserting repeatedly that "India has nothing to lose" from it. But the BJP would take none of it.
Within minutes of the PM's detailed statement in Parliament, the party dismissed it as a 'bundle of the same untruths, half-truths and pure white lies'.
The party, which had shouted slogans and tried to disrupt the PM's speech in Parliament earlier in the day, said it would continue to oppose the deal in and outside Parliament.
The Prime Minister has reduced Parliament to a farce by stating that the deal is signed and sealed and could not be renegotiated, making a mockery of the debate on the issue, the party charged.
Never before had Parliament been treated in such a 'cavalier fashion', they alleged.
"If the deal is signed and sealed and etched in stone, why does he want Parliament to go through the charade of a debate on it?" former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha and former Union minister Arun Shourie asked.
They pointed out that in his eight-page statement, the Prime Minister has conveniently ignored the sequence of legislative action in the United States and pretended as if the Hyde Act does not exist. "This is nothing but an ostrich-like attitude."
They also accused Dr Singh of 'clearly misleading the nation' by not revealing that the agreement was silent on issues like annual certification by the US President and that India's right to conduct nuclear tests would be governed by the provisions of the Hyde Act, passed by the US Congress in December 2006.
The BJP leaders reiterated that the placing of indigenous fast breeder reactors under the safeguards of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was an entirely 'unnecessary commitment' made by the UPA Government in the separation plan.
"Such a commitment will have an impact on India's three-stage nuclear programme as also on her research and development programme," they said.
Earlier addressing Parliament, the PM had claimed that India "has nothing to lose and only to gain from the 123 Agreement. Conducting nuclear tests in the future will be a sovereign decision, which rests with us," Singh said.
Meanwhile, in a bid to rally forces against the nuclear deal, BJP leader LK Advani spoke to CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and sought his party's vote against the Indo-US deal in Parliament.
"Mr Advani has spoken to Mr Prakash Karat... we are in touch with leaders of the Left and the UNPA," party leader and former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters.
Advani and other NDA leaders have made a fresh request to the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to allow a discussion on the deal under Rule 184 that entails a vote.
A separate notice has also been sent to Rajya Sabha secretariat for a similar discussion. "We are in touch with the leaders of all political parties (opposed to the deal) for floor coordination," Sinha said.
He alleged that Dr Singh has been "dishing out lies day in and day out" on the nuclear deal.
(With agency reports)
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