BJP does not see Left forcing govt on no-nuclear issue
BJP sees little scope for any political advantage in the event of an immediate denouement of the Left-government stand-off on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue, reports Shekhar Iyer.
A day after LK Advani’s phone call to CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, the BJP saw little scope for any political advantage in the event of an immediate denouement of the Left-government stand-off on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue.
Advani indicated as much when he addressed the BJP’s parliamentary party on Tuesday.
He said he had sent to Karat a draft resolution calling for renegotiation of the deal -- for a parliamentary vote, in the “hope” that those who opposed to it would vote against it in Parliament.
BJP’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha VK Malhotra quoted Advani as telling BJP MPs that both Congress and Communists had opposed the 1998 nuclear tests when the NDA was in power. Whereas, he said, the BJP had been a proponent of making India a nuclear state since 1966.
Advani who, claimed that a majority of MPs were against the deal, said unlike a similar deal with China by the US, the agreement with India did not say that the national laws of US would not apply and therefore could be taken up through a substantive motion.
The Leader of Opposition said the government could not remain silent on the Hyde Act, which was clear in its ambit. The BJP would leave it to the Speaker to decide on the fate of its notice for a debate with a vote on the issue.
"We do not have any big hope from them (the Left)," Malhotra told reporters, adding his party had received no response from Karat.
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