Allahabad: Asserting that new guidelines
issued by Nuclear Suppliers Group on ENR technology went
against India's interests, BJP on Friday claimed the development
flew in the face of assurances given by Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh while pushing for the Indo-US civil nuclear
deal.
"The NSG guidelines on enrichment and reprocessing
(ENR) technology goes clearly against Indian interests. It
seeks to impose restrictions on countries that have not signed
the non-proliferation treaty, and India happens to be one of
them.
"The development flies in the face of the assurances
given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he was so
passionately advocating the Indo-US nuclear deal," senior BJP
leader Murli Manohar Joshi told reporters.
Joshi said though the US has assured that the new
guidelines will not hamper India's nuclear projects, the
country would do better to shift its focus towards meeting
energy requirements without depending upon foreign resources.
"Huge reserves of uranium have recently been found in
Andhra Pradesh. We need to explore more such reserves which
might be lying untapped. Besides, we also need to work on
developing the technology whereby thorium, which we have in
abundance, can be used as a nuclear fuel," he said.
The former BJP president also termed as "clever" the
statement given by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
during her recent India visit wherein she said that Pakistan
should do more in its fight against terrorism, but refrained
from stating that it has failed to rein in cross-border
terrorism.
"Unless America comes clear on these issues, merely
expressing sorrow over loss of innocent lives will be of no
avail," he said, adding that this shows that the Congress-led
UPA government has not been able to put India's case
forcefully on the international stage.
Joshi also expressed alarm over reports that a number
of Indian intellectuals had remained in close touch with
Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai, who has been arrested in
the US for illegally lobbying for Pakistan.
"How has the government remained oblivious of these
developments when many of these dignitaries have been known to
be close to the highest echelons of power and some of them
even made as envoys?", he wondered.
PTI
First Published: Friday, July 22, 2011, 21:56