Shift on n-deal in BJP policy statement

“The PM has endangered the Indo-US bilateral relationship by reducing it to a single issue. Even in that, confusion reigns supreme and no one knows the fate of this nuclear deal,” the statement said.

Explaining this subtle shift in party’s focus of attack, a senior leader told The Indian Express: “Other than Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, for whom the opposition (to the deal) is a matter of conviction, top party leaders are not too much enthused by an anti-deal stance. The problem is that the UPA wanted the deal without taking us into confidence.”

Asked if the BJP would come around if the Atomic Energy Act were amended, Arun Shourie later said that the country must be “insulated from the Hyde Act,” while Jaswant Singh said the deal would not get the party’s support in “its present form”. A senior leader later said: “Top emissaries from the ruling alliance did contact the party brass. But the move came too late in the day. They feared that the BJP would hog all the credit, for it (Indo-US strategic alliance) is essentially our baby.” On Brajesh Mishra’s defence of the deal, Singh and Shourie said that his was an “individual opinion” though earlier “his views too were often taken while formulating the party position”.

The BJP said the Government was turning “a blind eye” to China’s spread of influence in neighbourhood.

“The Government’s sole concern has been to please China abroad and placate the CPI (M) at home,” they said, adding that “China has been making a series of unfriendly statements and gestures towards India in recent months.”