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"Today when I was coming to this meeting, a colleague of mine phoned me that he had met so and so from the Left who conveyed to him that privately the government has told them they are not pursuing it," he said.
Left parties, supporting the government from outside, had been strongly opposing the civil nuclear deal with the US and had even openly threatened to withdraw support to it if the deal was operationalised.
Advani said his party was not opposed to having a ‘strategic friendship’ with the US, but made it clear that it was opposed to the nuclear deal because it was a ‘treaty between unequals’.
He claimed that India would not be able to conduct nuclear tests after signing the deal.
"We are opposed to any agreement which says Indira Gandhi may have done Pokhran I, Atal Behari Vajpayee may have done Pokhran II, but hereafter no government of India must do Pokhran III, this we cannot except. If this is the price to be paid in the name of nuclear energy, our party is not in favour," he said.
Asserting that the BJP was in favour of a strategic partnership with the US, he said, "by and large this particular deal which is signed now is a treaty between unequals. This unequal treaty is not acceptable to us."
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RatingIf India conduct a nuclear test, America will move against India (including imposing sanctions) whether it is mentioned in the deal or not. So better not waste time in non-issues, and proceed with the deal.
Such a pact that the left has given the UPA enough time to gracefully retreat has been doing rounds for quite sometime and has been reported in a regional daily sometime in November 2007.
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