HVK Archives: BJP's nukes hit Congress hard
BJP's nukes hit Congress hard - The Indian Express
Vijay Simha
()
May 13, 1998
Title: BJP's nukes hit Congress hard
Author: Vijay Simha
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 13, 1998
The Pokhran nuclear tests seem to have claimed an unexpected
victim in the Capital's political circles: the Congress. The
county main Opposition party is racking its brains without a clue
on how to tackle the fallout.
The only issue raised by the party so far is she timing of the
tests. Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha Sharad Pawar said this
in Chennai, while party spokespersons repeated it in Delhi. And
the drought in the party's responses appear to be worrying the
high command.
Ever since Congress president Sonia Gandhi learnt of the tests
after Prime Minister AB Vajpayee announced it, the party has gone
into a huddle of sorts. And a good 24 hours later, Sonia hasn't
been able to push a line which the party should take on the issue
which is threatening to take the sting out of its attack on the
BJP.
The options are painfully limited for Sonia who turned to just
two men in the hour of need: Former Finance Minister Manmohan
Singh and former number two in the External Affairs Ministry
Natwar Singh.
Yesterday, they spent more than an hour talking to Sonia but only
managed to convey how little they could do in the situation.
Today, Natwar put out a jumble of contradictory views in the
official press conference and ended up practically pleading with
the BJP to at least tell the Congress "why" the tests were
conducted. As if this could provide the fodder the Congress is
desperately seeking.
The Congress is aware that the issue has more than one side to
it, and this probably is hurting its cause more than anything
else. For example, the Congress was the first to begin nuclear
testing - in May 1974 - when the famous 'smiling Buddha' coded
message set off a process which evolved into yesterday's events.
Besides this, the party released a statement just a few weeks
ago, saying "all possible steps" should be taken to meet any
external threat to the country's security. With such a
background, the party is hardly in a position to flay the BJP for
conducting the triple tests in Pokhran.
Which is why the party is harping on the timing of the tests.
Natwar's quotes reflect the dilemma in the Congress. He began by
saying the all is in the court of the Government", before
getting on to his doubts. "The Government has conducted the tests
but has not specified from where the security threat is coming.
How serious is it. Whether any strategic defence review has been
done in the last 40 days and, if so, whether the threat
perception has been re-evaluated," Singh wondered.
This was followed by a vague line on how the country was anyway
working towards updating its nuclear strength.
"It is not a question of whether we are for or against the tests.
These (yesterday's tests) are not a 40-day wonder but the result
of a 40-year effort starting from Nehru's time when our
scientists began work on them.
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