New Delhi: Accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of "appropriating" the credit for making India a nuclear power, Congress today (Apr 2, 2004) asked Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to explain to the nation as to why he had opposed resumption of the country's frozen nuclear programme in 1979.

It was the courage and conviction of Indira Gandhi and the preparations made prior to 1974 that India emerged a nuclear power, party spokesman Kapil Sibal told reporters in New Delhi.

"If Vajpayee had had his way, India would never have continued with its nuclear programme and it would not have been put on track and on May 11 and 13, 1998, no nuclear device would have been detonated," Sibal said.

The true character of Vajpayee was recently revealed by noted strategic analyst K Subramanyam at a function recently in which he publicly stated that in 1979, Indian intelligence picked up information regarding rapid progress in Pakistan's covert nuclear weapons programme, Sibal said.

The matter was reported by the Joint Intelligence Committee, of which Subramanyam was the chairman, to the Cabinet Secretariat with the recommendation that India resume its own nuclear programme, which was frozen after the peaceful explosion in Pokharan in 1974, he said.

The matter went to the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs headed by Prime Minister Morarji Desai and the members being Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram, H M Patel and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The issue was voted upon and by a thin majority the country's nuclear programme was put back on track, he said.

Sibal said those who voted against India resuming its nuclear programme were Morarji Desai and his External Affairs Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and those who voted for it were Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram and H M Patel.

"Vajpayee must explain why he voted against India's nuclear programme being put back on track. He owes an explanation to the people, especially in the context of unjust criticism of the Congress party and of his appropriating to himself and to the BJP the credit for detonation of nuclear devices in 1998," Sibal said.

The credit, if at all, must go to the Congress party, Sibal said adding, "Vajpayee should come clean and publicly state that he was always a dove and that but for the courageous step taken by the Congress party, India would never have been a nuclear power.

"The credit allegedly appropriated by him and the BJP, in fact, belongs to the Congress party," he said.

The Prime Minister has, on record, stated on several occasions that this, act of courage (detonation of nuclear device), was demonstrated by him unlike the previous Congress regime, in which the decision to detonate the device was shelved on account of alleged US pressure. This, of course, has been denied by the Congress party, Sibal added.