Differences within the BJP on India’s decision to vote against Iran on the IAEA resolution came to the fore today, with former foreign minister Jaswant Singh openly disagreeing with his colleague Yashwant Sinha’s comment yesterday that ‘‘by abandoning Iran, the UPA has made India a client state of the US.’’At a press meet at the BJP headquarters today, Jaswant Singh attacked the UPA leadership for not taking the Opposition into confidence on the reasons behind its vote but refrained from any explicit criticism of the decision itself. Asked whether he agreed with Sinha’s comment about India’s capitulation to the US, Singh said, ‘‘India is not a country that can be subordinated.’’That unambiguous statement apart, Singh parried a spate of questions on whether India should have voted as it did and stuck to criticising the government for the manner in which it handled the issue, rather than the substance of its policy shift.In a written statement, Singh accused the UPA government of ‘‘spreading confusion’’ on the issue as a result of which ‘‘a countrywide impression has spread that the UPA government has surreptitiously engaged in a major recast of policy on this important issue which directly affects our national security too.’’He said, ‘‘There is a strong belief, including of UPA partners, that this has been done under international pressure, particularly of the US, that India as a permanent member of the IAEA Board, has merely followed the initiative of others, like that of the EU-3 (UK, France, Germany), and that the UPA government has effected this major policy shift on the quiet, without adequate democratic consultations.’’Demanding that the UPA must ‘‘candidly share all the facts with the country,’’ he criticised the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister for not coming out with any explanation on the matter. ‘‘It is unbecoming of the government to hide behind officials, fielding them instead to answer, when the decision is fundamentally political,’’ Singh said.The BJP, which had brought about ‘‘a major transformation of the entire nuclear policy’’ of the country, was a lot more transparent, he claimed.He demanded clear answers to questions on India’s vote in Vienna on Saturday: “The government must spell out what aspect of the NPT Agreement had Iran violated, what was the hurry in holding an IAEA meet now when a regular meeting was scheduled in November, was a decision to vote against Iran was a cabinet decision, does the resolution tantamount to redefining the NPT, and has the government examined the ramifications of such an approach for India’s own nuclear policy and security?”Singh said, ‘‘The CPM, on its part, must at least now desist from continuing to get entangled in policy confusions. They cannot always be hunting with the hounds and running with the hares.’’Singh’s statement, however, failed to throw light on the BJP’s own position on the US vs Iran battle over the nuclear issue.
