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Jaswant Singh's mission to US was a failure, says Congress

Noting that the government's foreign policy was directionless, the Congress today asked Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to clarify the principles behind the policy.

Party spokesman Salman Khurshid, who has had a stint as minister of state for foreign affairs, said total anarchy prevailed in the conduct of foreign policy by the Vajpayee government. ''Nobody knew who was running it -- the prime minister or his deputy external affairs minister Vasundhara Raje or a retired foreign service official or non-mandated Planning Commission deputy chairman Jaswant Singh."

Khurshid said the feedback for the party from the United States was that the policy-makers there had not recognised Jaswant Singh's presence, contrary to the claims made by the latter. The people need to know what assurance Singh had given on behalf of the country like signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty or explaining why India conducted the nuclear tests. He said the Congress had gathered information from the senators and media reports and was keenly following the developments.

He said India was not obliged to explain to any country its reasons for the nuclear tests before or after the tests, or to the United States or any other country on whether it had signed or violated any treaty.

UNI

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