Atal warns government on N-deal

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday warned the government against any bilateral agreement with the US for the civilian nuclear deal till Parliament has had a chance to discuss it thoroughly.
In a statement here, he questioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's approval a month back of a task force to review existing policy on disarmament, non-proliferation and other security-related issues.
"The setting up of this task force at this juncture is nothing more than a thinly veiled move towards reversing our nuclear related policies," he said.
Vajpayee timed his statement ahead of the visit by National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Washington later this month.
They are to hold talks with their American interlocutors to iron out differences on the proposed 123 agreement to operationalise the nuclear deal.
Vajpayee said the idea seemed to bring India’s position on these issues in conformity with many of the "highly objectionable" provisions of the US Hyde Act "which is to govern the Indo-US nuclear deal" and "then to pretend that the changes have been undertaken by us autonomously."
Senior BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who appeared before the media to explain Vajpayee’s statement, said, “the least that Vajpayee expected from the government is to explain its position on all these issues and set our doubts at rest.”
Sinha said, “the talk of a creative approach has fuelled our suspicion that a major comprise by India is on the anvil. We have adopted their goal posts while saying that we are not shifting our goal posts. This task force is help the US to implement its decision.”
Shourie said, “our assessment is that an attempt is being made to smuggle in the provisions of the Hyde Act in our policies.”
Vajpayee’s apprehensions were on two counts the ban on nuclear tests by India and the government’s contention that India was "working actively with the US for the early conclusion" of a "multilateral" Fissile Material Cut Off Treaty (FMCT).
Vajpayee said the confidence of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the deal would be concluded before the end of this year "may also be linked to the review of India's policies".
"Once the nuclear deal comes into effect, the Hyde Act will ensure that India loses forever its option of conducting a nuclear weapons test, even if any other country tests,” he warned.
-
Haryana’s money-linked diversification drive:Area under paddy cultivation reduced by 10% in 2021
Two years after it was rolled out, the Haryana government's financial incentive-linked diversification drive, has gained some ground with area under water-guzzling paddy reducing by 10% in 2021. As per official data, during the kharif season in 2021 crop diversification took place on 51,878 acres. As many as 62,562 farmers were paid ₹53.34 crore as incentive for opting for crop diversification. It came down to 14.60 lakh acre in 2021.
-
Jammu and Kashmir SSB registers highest-ever recruitment in 2021-22
The J&K SSB registered the highest-ever recruitment in 2021-22, since its inception, said the J&K government. On Tuesday, the chief secretary, Arun Kumar Mehta chaired a high-level meeting about recruitments being made through the J&K Public Service Commission, J&K Service Selection Board, J&K Police Recruitment Board and J&K Bank in the UT. “Previously, the J&K Service Selection Board recruited 8,580 and 8,115 candidates in 2009 and 2015, respectively.”
-
For the 52-year-old first-time AAP legislator and a dental surgeon Vijay Singla, who created history by winning the Mansa assembly seat by a record margin of 63,323 votes on the plank of 'political honesty', the downfall was as unexpected as his rise --- all this, in just two months after his induction in the Bhagwant Mann-led cabinet in Punjab. Singla had defeated the Congress nominee and popular Punjabi rapper Shubhdeep Singh alias Sidhu Moosewala.
-
Punjab section of freight corridor likely to be operational by year-end
An 82-kilometre-long section of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, extending from Sahnewal to Shambhu in Punjab, is expected to become operational by the end of the year. The 175km single-track section is spread across Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Ambala, Yamunanagar and Saharanpur districts of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh under the Ambala and Ferozepur divisions of the Northern Railways. It extends from Sahnewal in Punjab to Pilkhani in Uttar Pradesh.
-
Constable shot dead; daughter injured in Srinagar terror attack
Militants on Tuesday attacked an off-duty police constable killing him and injuring his nine-year-old daughter at Anchar in Srinagar. Police said that the cop identified as Saifullah Qadri was attacked by militants near Anchar when he was walking on the road along with his daughter outside his house. “The terrorists involved in the killing of the cop will be identified and neutralised soon,” inspector general of police Vijay Kumar said.