Title: N-debate: PM
dares, Sonia stares, Cong cuts sorry figure
Author: Swaraj Thapa
Publication: The Economic
Times
Date: April 26, 2000
Hardpressed over not
wanting to trigger a confrontation with senior colleague Pranab Mukherjee,
Congress president Sonia Gandhi tied the party in knots on the nuclear
deterrence issue today. The party found itself in an embarrassing situation
unable to clearly articulate its position on the subject.
Ms Gandhi's failure to
respond to a direct question from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on
the floor of the Lok Sabha today - during the debate on the motion of thanks
to the President's speech - to clarify the Congress stand on the issue,
was promptly interpreted as her incapability to handle situations where
she had to reply extempore without the aid of a written copy.
With practised sophistication,
Mr Vajpayee virtually dared her to articulate the Congress position on
the floor of the house and end the confusion over the issue. When he failed
to elicit a reply, he even went to the extent of quipping that the home
minister, sitting by his side, was prodding him to leave her alone.
However, Ms Gandhi's
move to ignore the Prime Minister's challenge has once again raised the
question of whether she did support the idea of minimum credible nuclear
deterrent in her meeting with US President Bill Clinton on March 22. The
prime minister, in his speech today as well as earlier, has latched on
to the controversy since Mr Mukherjee has refused to acknowledge that he
erred in quoting Ms Gandhi after the meeting with Mr Clinton.
Mr Mukherjee, who was
part of the Congress delegation which called on Mr Clinton to give the
opposition's point of view on India's strategic and regional concerns,
had briefed the media after the meeting that Sonia had outlined the party
perception on CTBT and supported the idea of minimum nuclear deterrent.
Party spokesperson Ajit
Jogi had however, immediately denied Mr Mukherjee's assertion maintaining
that Sonia Gandhi "did not use these words". Stopping short of endorsing
the government's stand on need for a minimum credible nuclear deterrence,
Mr Jogi had said that only the government would be in a position to take
a view from time to time on the issue, since it depended on classified
information on threat perceptions and security concerns.
According to Mr Jogi,
the congress position was that India's long term security interests were
important, and no final view had been taken on the nuclear issue. He even
pointed that the scientific community was divided over the matter, and
referred to the statement of a former chairman of the atomic energy commission
that the number of tests conducted so far were not enough.
The inability of the
Congress to come out with a firm assertion of its views has been largely
perceived as resisting out of its unwillingness to align with the government
stand on the need for India to maintain a minimum credible nuclear deterrent.
Party circles maintained
today that since the leadership was torn over not wanting to antagonise
Mr Mukherjee - who significantly has refused to accept that he was wrong
- it was trying to push the controversy over.
