NEW DELHI, OCT 4: Congress on Monday expressed deep concern over the confusing statements from the government of India signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and wanted the government to state its official stance on the issue unambiguously.Taking exception to the statement of national security advisor Brajesh Mishra that a consensus is building in the country about our stance on signing the CTBT, Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal asked: Where on earth is this consensus building going on? He also said that this consensus exists only in the mind of some sections of the BJP.Sibal described as significant the reported statement of Mishra that the United States had asked India to prepare a favourable ground before President Bill Clinton's visit to India, which meant that India sign the CTBT.He recalled the earlier statements of Mishra on India's willingness to partially adhere to the CTBT and the subsequent denial as in the case of placing China as the primary motivation for the nuclear tests. In the midst of elections Mishra suggested that the presence of deterrence ensured that the situation in Kargil did not go into an escalatory mode whereas the opposite was the truth, Sibal said.Kargil was de-escalated only after a specific agreement was signed by Clinton and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on July 4, Sibal said. The Congress would like to ask the BJP, if there is any connection between the fact that Clinton persuaded Sharif to de-escalate the Kargil situation and the reported assertion that the US has asked that India sign the CTBT before the presidential visit? Sibal said.He said the principle of consensus on vital national issues already stood sacrificed and the BJP's attitude to the CTBT was one such example.He said Congress also wanted that the deep and abiding bilateral relations between mature democracies should necessarily be based on equal and mutual respect.
