New Delhi

Sinha `shocked' at plan to separate nuke facilities

Special Correspondent

Only the U.S. has been taken into confidence in the deal, he says

NEW DELHI: Former External Affairs Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha has said he was shocked that the Government had not taken the Cabinet, Parliament or other political parties into confidence on the plan for separation of nuclear facilities that it has reportedly submitted to the United States.

Flexibility

"The separation [of military and civilian nuclear facilities] plan, which is central to the nuclear deal [with the U.S.], would determine the flexibility of India's nuclear weapons programme in future. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance not only for the present but also for generations to come. Yet, in making such a far-reaching commitment, the Government does not think it fit to take the people of India into confidence, the Opposition party leaders into confidence, its own alliance partners into confidence and even its own Cabinet into confidence, but it has no objection to the U.S. Congress being taken into confidence," Mr. Sinha said in a statement here on Saturday.

Patience counselled

His advice to the Prime Minister was that India should not rush into an "entirely unequal and unacceptable deal with the U.S.", but "show patience" for "the world will ultimately recognise India for what it is, a nuclear weapons state."

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