A meeting of the party’s core group, which was scheduled today, was deferred and is likely to take place on Wednesday. “We are in the process of formulating our position in the light of Advaniji’s statement. Our opposition cannot be as strident as the Left’s. We will support the deal if our concerns are addressed,” said a member of the core group.

Advani had told The Indian Express on Sunday that if the UPA government could bring an amendment in the Atomic Energy Act to protect India’s strategic independence then “there is no problem with the 123 Agreement.” His position has not been in tune with the party’s public posturing so far on the issue, articulated vehemently by Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie.

However, the party is still trying to work out what amendments in the Act could address its concerns and the core group is expected to formulate this.

Advani’s view is finding support in the party. Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, V K Malhotra said: “America is the superpower and the BJP wants India to have strategic relations with them. Communists do not want any alliance with the US but this position will only help China and Pakistan.”

Advani’s statement was derived from the dominant thinking within the party that by aligning its rhetoric on the deal so closely to that of the Left and other regional outfits such as the Samajwadi Party, the BJP went out of tune with its political constituency. By being assertive on the deal and pushing for engagement with the United States, the Congress suddenly appeared to be gaining support with what is considered the BJP’s urban, middle class constituency.

As this segment began to count the BJP, Left and the SP in the same basket, the saffron party knew it’s time to chart a different course. The amended positioning of the BJP reiterates the party’s efforts — while in government — for better relations with the US, of which nuclear deal is only one aspect.

Opposition to the deal will be qualified and restricted to the testing and fuel supplies question, which the party feels, will be in resonance with its political constituency. Advani’s statement comes just days after the RSS openly backed the Left on the opposition to the deal.

In September, top brass of the BJP and the RSS are expected to meet in Mumbai. The BJP national executive in Bhopal later in the month is also expected to deliberate on the nuclear deal, among other contemporary issues.

Meanwhile, speaking at the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians (IUFP), BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said there is a whole big world in Indo-US relationship, which we should not overlook. “Don’t judge the Indo-US relationship in terms of the success or failure of the deal,” he said.

Prasad said though the Left has an ideological problem his party’s concerns were different. “We don’t want to close the option of going in for a nuclear test when the time comes, specially because of our hostile neighbourhood”. “Indo-US amity was initiated by the NDA Government and if the Congress takes it forward we are sure to support it,” he said.