PM criticised for promising consensus on CTBT

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 29. The Congress(I) today took the Prime Minister to task for promising consensus on the contentitious CTBT in Lisbon. ``Announcements of such significance should not have been made outside the country, he should have said it before Parliament or on national television'' said the CWC member and chairman of the AICC foreign affairs cell, Mr. Natwar Singh.

Accusing the Prime Minister of trying to revive a dead treaty, Mr. Singh said the Prime Minister must tell the nation why he was trying to revive a treaty `` which the United States Senate had decided to bury``. According to the AICC foreign affairs chairman, the priority being accorded to the CTBT by the Prime Minister was surprising because the treaty is not only the priority list of the present U.S. Government and it is also unlikely that the next administration will treat it as a priority.

Mr. Singh charged the Vajpayee Government of merely paying lip service to the idea of building a consensus on the issue. ``There is no national consensus on the issue and neither has the government made an effort to take the Opposition or the Leader of the Opposition into confidence,'' he said. Mr. Singh a former Foreign Minister urged the Prime Minister to spell out the package that he has in mind for a consensus.

Speaking of his party's stand on the issue , Mr. Natwar Singh clarified that while his party does not have a closed mind on the issue, it was the government's duty to hold consultations with opposition parties. The Congress(I) party, said Mr. Singh, recognises that Pokhran was a fact of life but were it in office it would work overtime for nuclear disarmament,'' at the same time it would do everything in its power to safeguard the security and territorial integrity of the country without getting tied up into knots over matters purely semantic.''

He also took a dig at the government's understanding of the issue, he reminded the Prime Minister it was that CTBT was ``about nuclear non-proliferation and not disarmament''. Referring to the Prime Minister's dramatic challenge to Ms. Sonia Gandhi in the last session of Parliament, asking her to spell out the party's stand on the issue, Mr. Singh said the party President had done the right thing ``by not falling into the trap because it is for the government to spell out the policy not us.'' The former Foreign Minister urged the government to come out and state its position with regard to minimal deterrent. ``Minimal deterrence against whom, Pakistan or china, and how many bombs for China and Pakistan'', he asked sarcastically.

Left parties today said the NDA Government should not take the opposition for granted on the issue of consensus on CTBT, saying that there should be a debate first in Parliament on the crucial matter.

- PTI

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