In a swift move to counter former National Security Advisor (NSA) Brajesh Mishra?s reported views on the controversial Indo-US nuclear deal, the BJP on Monday asked the government to desist from rushing through the agreement.
Riding on the issue the party also trained its guns against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as it is alleged that he consulted nobody, not even his external affairs minister, ??before setting out on this contentious and highly questionable course.??
Issuing a statement to media outlining party?s official stand on many of the contemporary contentious foreign policy issues including nuclear deal, Tibet and Nepal, former external affairs minister and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh said, the Prime Minister took neither the political parties nor Parliament into confidence before committing the country to the ??grave consequences of the nuclear deal.??
In the hard-hitting statement, the party dubbed him one who has been in surrender mode both at home and abroad on vital issues of the national interest. ??Survival in office has been his sole mantra. The weakness and paralysis in decision making that are his hallmark are evident in foreign policy as much as in other spheres. His record of four years is littered with one failure after another on all fronts,?? the party said in a statement.
Charging the UPA government with eroding the credibility of the country and gravely endangering its security, it claimed that India?s strategic space, enlarged significantly under the NDA regime, had ??shriveled disastrously?? during the UPA government.
The party also accused the PM of treating the nuclear deal as a matter of personal prestige. It said the PM made reckless statements on the issue, and ??yet lost no time in beating an instant retreat when faced with opposition from the props of his own government.?? Besides he was responsible for reducing the India-US relationship to a ??singe-issue?? (Nuclear deal), it said.
When pointedly asked if Mishra?s views on the deal an embarrassment to the party senior leader Arun Shourie said, ??It?s not a question of embarrassment. Individual opinion does not matter on issues pertaining to national interest.??
On the issue of Nepal also the BJP criticised the government for its ??disastrous ostrich-like inaction??. ??By outsourcing of its policy on Nepal to the CPI(M), the government has seriously jeopardised India?s national interest,?? it said.
Though welcomed restoration of democracy in the country, the party expressed that no one should fail to notice that, ??in spite of intimidation during polls 70% of the people of Nepal voted for parties other than the Maoists.??
Expressing its disappointment over the government’s approach toward Tibet, the BJP said, as on other issues, in this case also, its sole concern had been to “please China abroad and to placate CPI(M) at Home”.