Gujral praises N-deal, calls for a united front

“The Indo-US nuclear pact should be judged in perspective rather than derogatory adjectives,” Gujral said in a conversation with The Indian Express.

Responding to the BJP and Left criticisms of the pact, Gujral emphasised the “essential continuity in India’s foreign and nuclear policies” and called for a “consensual approach” in the impending parliamentary debate on the Indo-US nuclear pact.

Asked whether BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee was departing from the tradition of former prime ministers not raising controversy over nuclear issues, Gujral did not respond.

But he insisted that India’s nuclear diplomacy should be seen as a “national policy” rather than “belonging to one particular party”.

Referring to the intense national debate on the CTBT in the mid 1990s, Gujral said no responsible person in the country called for signing the treaty and the national consensus on the subject was deep.

On the moral arguments against nuclear weapons, of the kind offered by the Left parties, Gujral said India’s position evolved during the CTBT debate when “national security arguments” prevailed over the idealist ones. That debate is now behind us, Gujral suggested.

Arguing that India’s strength lay in “consensual politics,” Gujral underlined the success of different coalition governments over the last decade in managing the nuclear challenges faced by the nation. Gujral added that political parties must carefully consider what Prime Minister Singh has to say in Parliament on the Indo-US nuclear pact rather than “rushing into polemical assertions”.

Singh is expected to make a suo motu statement to the Parliament on Friday.

Questioned on the importance of separating civilian and military nuclear programmes, Gujral said India should have little difficulty doing this. He pointed to the fact that India has always accepted this basic principle and had put many of its peaceful facilities under international safeguards. On the nuclear pact’s implications for the size of India’s atomic arsenal, Gujral said: “Bush has not asked us to quantify India’s minimum deterrent”.

Gujral was confident that Prime Minister Singh would have taken into account all technical and security considerations in signing the nuclear pact.

Congratulating Singh for conducting himself with “great dignity” in Washington, Gujral said the US clearly wants to “befriend India”.

The process of engagement between India and the US which began when he met President Bill Clinton in New York in September 1997, has begun to pay off, Gujral said.