07-20-2008, 02:48 AM
<b>Put off negotiations on IAEA deal: BJP</b>
Special Correspondent
âClarify whether the deal will come under Hyde Act scrutinyâ
Deal compromises countryâs nuclear interests
Fall of the UPA government is certain
PATNA: BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, MP, on Saturday demanded that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government put on hold negotiations on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreement.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Prasad said denounced the government action and said that it should not be in any hurry in negotiations in Vienna on the IAEA agreement, particularly when the government was seeking a trust vote.
He said that the government should first give a clarification whether the deal would come under the scrutiny of the Hyde Act. The BJP leader feared that it would deter the countryâs right to pursue nuclear testing.
Mr. Prasad underlined that his party was for good relations with the U.S. but maintained that the deal in its present form compromised the countryâs nuclear interests in further testing atom bombs.
The deal in his opinion was not even otherwise worth it given that the nuclear energy proportion would rise marginally from 2.5 to about 6 per cent over a period of 20 years that too after a huge investment of about $120 billion.
Mr. Prasad said that the fall of the UPA government was certain and charged that it had committed the biggest fraud on the common masses.
The BJP general secretary accused the PMO of being the biggest bargain counter in the country and as the patented promoters of horse-trading. He charged that it had been forced to arbiter corporate disputes.
He took a dig on issues of secularism and communalism saying that the divide had become a farce and a joke by pointing to two instances. In 1990 Rajiv Gandhi had voted with the BJP to defeat the V.P.Singh government and that Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K.Advani had sponsored the motion electing Somnath Chatterjee Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 2004.
Special Correspondent
âClarify whether the deal will come under Hyde Act scrutinyâ
Deal compromises countryâs nuclear interests
Fall of the UPA government is certain
PATNA: BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, MP, on Saturday demanded that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government put on hold negotiations on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreement.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Prasad said denounced the government action and said that it should not be in any hurry in negotiations in Vienna on the IAEA agreement, particularly when the government was seeking a trust vote.
He said that the government should first give a clarification whether the deal would come under the scrutiny of the Hyde Act. The BJP leader feared that it would deter the countryâs right to pursue nuclear testing.
Mr. Prasad underlined that his party was for good relations with the U.S. but maintained that the deal in its present form compromised the countryâs nuclear interests in further testing atom bombs.
The deal in his opinion was not even otherwise worth it given that the nuclear energy proportion would rise marginally from 2.5 to about 6 per cent over a period of 20 years that too after a huge investment of about $120 billion.
Mr. Prasad said that the fall of the UPA government was certain and charged that it had committed the biggest fraud on the common masses.
The BJP general secretary accused the PMO of being the biggest bargain counter in the country and as the patented promoters of horse-trading. He charged that it had been forced to arbiter corporate disputes.
He took a dig on issues of secularism and communalism saying that the divide had become a farce and a joke by pointing to two instances. In 1990 Rajiv Gandhi had voted with the BJP to defeat the V.P.Singh government and that Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K.Advani had sponsored the motion electing Somnath Chatterjee Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 2004.