CTBT — Mulayam sets terms for signature

Speaking to The Indian Express, Ram Gopal Yadav, leader of Samajwadi Party in Rajya Sabha, who accompanied Mulayam, said the party chief made it clear to the Prime Minister that they need to ensure two things before they sign the CTBT.

“This is an issue of national pride and after the Pokharan nuclear tests in 1998, India has become a nuclear power and should be recognised as such by these countries before it signs the CTBT,” he said.

According to him, it is essential for India to get something in return.

“Another thing is that all the nuclear countries should destroy their nuclear weapons and only then we should sign the treaty, otherwise it would send wrong signals across the country and the morale of our forces will go down,” he said.

He said the Prime Minister told them that he would comment on the issue only after meeting the representatives of all the political parties on the issue.

Yadav said the Samajwadi Party will only support the move to sign the CTBT if the government ensures that the two conditions are met.

The Samajwadi Party has 25 members in Lok Sabha and seven in Rajya Sabha and its support may be crucial for the government.

Vajpayee will be meeting the leaders of the Left Front on Tuesday to ascertain their views on the issue.

Interestingly, the Left parties will be meeting the Prime Minister in two batches. While the leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Forward Bloc (FB) will meet the PM on Tuesday, sources in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) pointed out that the CPM leaders had insisted on a separate meeting with the PM.

The CPM leaders will be meeting the PM on Wednesday. Some of the Left leaders have already said that they may insist on a time-bound elimination of nuclear weapons linked with the signing of the CTBT and may echo this view at the meeting with the PM on Tuesday.