A meeting of the BJP top brass today reiterated its opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal and called for its “renegotiation.”

The meeting of the party’s core group took place amid indications that the party was formulating a more nuanced position on the deal after NSA M K Narayanan and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar met the party leadership to reassure them that the deal does not impinge on India’s strategic weapons programme.

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and US Ambassador David Mulford had also met the BJP leadership seeking support for the deal.

But the core group decided that no amendment is required in the party’s stated position. It was felt that the government’s “reaching out” was too little too late and even that had little “political” weight. The party also took a view that the deal’s fate is not going to be decided by what the BJP does or not — it’s the Left that holds the key to it — and the party does not need to go out of the way to help the ruling alliance out of its predicament over the deal.

A joint statement issued by party president Rajnath Singh, leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh said: “The BJP has been and continues to be of the view that the UPA Government has made a significant strategic blunder by turning this deal into a kind of an icon of India’s relations with the US.”

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