Mounting a scathing attack on the UPA government on the Indo-US nuclear agreement, main opposition BJP on Tuesday said it will re-negotiate the deal if it comes to power. "I declare that if we come to power, which we will, we will re-negotiate the deal," senior party leader and former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said in the Rajya Sabha participating in the short duration discussion. Sinha said the UPA government was "misleading" the nation on all key issues including the right to reprocess fuel, energy security and ending country's nuclear apartheid. "All the scientists whom I have spoken to have told me that the nuclear isolation has proved to be a boon for India," he said advising the government to stop this "cry over ending the apartheid". He said when the entire world wanted to do business with India, "what apartheid you are talking about". The debate saw heated personal exchanges between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sinha over BJP's allegation that India could not sign a deal with Russia for additional reactors under pressure from the US. Sinha's charge was stoutly denied by the Prime Minister who said the agreement with Russia could not have been initialed without India finalizing the country-specific agreement with the IAEA and the NSG. Sinha said the Prime Minister in his July 2005 press conference in Washington had stated that the deal would have the support from "all thinking" segment of the population in the country. He wondered whether all those
RE:RE:here is the right scene
by tun tun on Dec 04, 2007 07:18 PM Permalink
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opposing the agreement including himself, Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Amar Singh (SP) and the AIADMK did not belong to the "thinking segment". Reading from the Hyde Act and the draft 123 agreement, the BJP leader said there was no assurance of fuel supply for life time for Indian reactors in these documents. "I challenge and ask where is the assurance of fuel supply in the 123 agreement," he said. Sinha said while the government makes claim about achieving energy security, neither the Prime Minister nor External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee seemed to be bothered about the cost. The BJP leader said the Manmohan Singh government was coming under the US pressure as was evident from the recent setback to the Iranian LNG project and the State Bank of India not being able to transact business with Iran. Observing that Indo-Russia ties also saw a nosedive in the recent past, Sinha said this was borne out by the fact that the External Affairs Minister could not meet his counterpart when he visited Moscow. "What is happening to India-Russia relations," he asked.
