ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Clarify misgivings on N-tests, Deve Gowda tells PM

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Friday said Prime Minister A B Vajpayee should clarify doubts raised by some scientists on the recent nuclear tests.

Talking to newsmen at his residence in Bangalore, he said some scientists had raised doubts over the claims made by the scientific advisor to prime minister, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, and Atomic Energy Commission chairman Dr R Chidambaram on the technical data, gathered from the successful conduct of the tests. A clarification from the government was essential since the country's image was involved, he added.

He wondered whether the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government at the Centre had departed from the time-tested foreign policy pursued by Jawaharlal Nehru and other successive prime ministers.

Barring Vajpayee, Home Minister L K Advani and some other ministers, no other Union minister had reacted to such a major event. Defence Minister George Fernandes had said hard days were ahead. When Fernandes made a provocative statement against China, Vajpayee had asserted that the country's relations with China were good. However, he contradicted himself in his letter to United States President Bill Clinton, while explaining the rationale behind the nuclear blasts.

Deve Gowda took exception to the statements made by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on the issue, and said such interference on major decisions could not be allowed.

He said it was surprising to note that the VHP had given a call to the people to prepare for war. He also had a dig at the political advisor to the prime minister, Pramod Mahajan, for his statement that the country was ready to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the prime minister's principal secretary that there would be no more nuclear tests. "I don't know whether they are permitted by the prime minister to say so," he added.

Urging the ruling coalition at the Centre not to derive any political mileage from the tests, Deve Gowda wanted to know the stand of other coalition partners in this regard. There was a temporary ceasefire among themselves (following the tests), he added.

He also urged the Centre to come out with a specific policy on nuclear-related issues and ensure that organisations like the RSS and VHP did not raise the issue. If the BJP politicised the issue it would be the biggest danger to the nation. The tests were aimed at covering up the BJP-led government's failures. No step was taken to help families of the farmers who committed suicide due to crop, loss in some states, he lamented.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report