BJP is ready for debate, talks on deal: Rajnath

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 28 Three days after The Indian Express reported that Brajesh Mishra, National Security Advisor in the BJP-led NDA government, has said he will let the Indo-US nuclear deal go ahead if he is convinced that the country’s strategic weapons programme is safe and intact, BJP president Rajnath Singh said his party is ready for a parliamentary debate and talks with the Government on the deal.

“As far as debate and talks are concerned, BJP is always ready for debate and talks,” Rajnath Singh told NDTV today. Asked if his party is ready for a debate under Rule 184 which entails voting, Singh said “that can be taken care of later”.

The remarks are significant given government plans to convene a brief Parliament session on the deal.

Earlier, Mishra told The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV’s Walk the Talk programme (to be broadcast at 9.30 pm on November 3) that he faced a dilemma. “...The deal, which is offered, has been made the centrepiece of the strategic relationship. I don’t think the Clinton administration would have offered (such a deal). That is why I say it is a dilemma for a person like me who is worried about the strategic programme and also the deal not going through.”

Asked how could one save both the deal and the Indo-US relationship, Mishra said: “If I were to get credible guarantees from the government about the integrity of what we (the NDA) had left behind three-and-a-half years ago, what has been done in these three-and-a-half years for them to prove that there are also enthusiastic about the nuclear weapons programme, then I would say, personally, to go forward with the deal because I am not so critical of the US for following this particular policy. I am critical of the government bending to the wishes of the US.”

Following Mishra’s remarks, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said in Mumbai that “the deal must be done” but “it must be an agreement among equals.” Naidu said “we want good relations with America”. He said it was the NDA government which had improved relations with the US and had even invited Bill Clinton to India.

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BJP is ready for debate, talks on deal: Rajnath

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