BJP for JPC on N-deal implementation

NEW DELHI: Accusing the Government of succumbing to fresh US conditionalities on the nuclear deal, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday demanded setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to oversee the implementation of a resolution reflecting the sense of Indian Parliament.

Opposing the "fundamentally flawed" deal which would have a "deleterious impact", senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said in the Rajya Sabha that India cannot bend to the will of the US Congress and this message should go loud and clear.

The former External Affairs Minister, who initiated the Short Duration Discussion on Indo-US nuclear deal, said his party was opposed to the deal signed on July 18 last year because from the very next day "diametrically differing interpretations of the deal started coming from the US side".

Demanding a resolution reflecting the sense of the House, Sinha, who led the Opposition attack, said a JPC should be constituted with members from both Houses to oversee implementation of the resolution.

Terming the deal as one-sided, he said the pact did not assure supply of fuel and full civil nuclear cooperation.

"India should not accept these crippling and humiliating conditionalities," he said.

The BJP leader said the NDA was not against strategic ties with the US. But, the ties must be built on sovereignty, reciprocity and mutual respect and should not be on shaky foundation, he said.

Sinha demanded uninterrupted supply of nuclear fuel to India and the IAEA inspection should be only as long as the deal holds. "If these are violated, such a deal cannot bind India in future," he said, adding if these demands were not accepted by Washington, the accord should be terminated on national security grounds.

The BJP leader said the Government must heed to the advice of eminent nuclear scientists who had voiced concern over the deal.

He said the deal has been "completely directed" by the Americans. "If the Prime Minister is North Pole, the Americans are in the South Pole," he said, adding the departure from the July 18 agreement has already started.

He said separation of civil and strategic nuclear supply has not been mentioned and Indian Parliament has not been taken into confidence. "It (deal) will bind India as there is no exit clause," he said.