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Left parties flay nuclear policy

The left parties today charged the Bharatiya Janata Party with pursuing a reckless nuclear policy leading to a harmful nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan, with ''diversion of scarce resources and futile build-up of nuclear weapons''.

This will not benefit the Indian people who have more serious problems to deal with over their livelihood, they said in a joint statement after a meeting in New Delhi.

''The BJP has rushed into this adventurist policy with the political motive of rousing feelings of chauvinism and jingoism in order to cover up its own political difficulties of running a rickety coalition and its failure to address the serious problems facing the country,'' the statement said.

By adopting this unilateral policy, the Vajpayee government has seriously harmed the improvement in relations with neighbouring countries which was built up over the years and carried forward by the previous United Front government.

There is no direct nuclear threat posed by any country against India which necessitates such a step, the statement said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has taken this drastic decision on its own without even caring to discuss with the national political parties. The prime minister is now promising to call a meeting of opposition leaders on the eve of the budget session of Parliament after making the BJP's own policy a fait accompli.

The contempt shown by the Vajpayee government in not taking the people of the country into confidence while hastening to write to President Clinton has been exposed by the entire text of the prime minister's letter being published in the United States.

This letter has sought to mollify the United States by citing the threat to India from China as the main factor. It is short-sighted and against India's national interests to revive a confrontation with China after the decade-long progress in normalisation and improvement of relations between the two countries.

While condemning sanctions imposed by the United States of America and some other countries, the left parties strongly opposed the fast-track policy adopted for further opening up and wooing foreign multinationals in all sectors of the economy.

The meeting was attended by Harkishen Singh Surjeet, A B Bardhan, D D Shastri, Sushil Bhattacharya, Abani Roy, Prakash Karat, J Chittaranjan, S Ramachandran Pillai and Devarajan.

UNI

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