Coimbatore: Condemning strongly the reported advice of External Affairs Minister, K Natwar Singh to South Korea and other countries on nuclear weapons, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today (Dec 18, 2004) said that the controversy precipitated by the remarks had exposed another serious infirmity of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government.

UPA Ministers and supporting parties seemed to have scant commitment to the principle of "collective responsibility," BJP president L K Advani told reporters at Coimbatore airport.

"It has become routine for the hapless Prime Minister to rise to the defence of his errant Ministers--be it External Affairs Minister or the bunch of tainted ministers from Bihar and Jharkhand, who had, for the first time, criminalized Government at the Centre," Advani alleged.

Advani claimed that Singh in an interview given to a South Korean newspaper, had advised South Korea and other countries that may want to acquire nuclear weapons "not to follow the example of India."

Singh's advice amounted to a brazen repudiation of the most important dimension of India's self-defence strategy, he said, adding BJP held the Minister guilty of lowering India's prestige in the international community.

Besides, it was a negation of UPA Government's own commitment, contained in the Congress-led alliance's common minimum programme, on maintaining India's nuclear deterrence at a credible minimum level, Advani said.

Never in the history of Independent India has any External Affairs Minister rubbished the Nation's strategic Defence interests, that too on foreign soil, in as reckless a manner as Singh has done, Advani alleged.

"Indeed, it has become a habit with senior representatives of UPA Government to criticise the BJP and Vajpayee Government on foreign soil-something which we had never done vis-a-vis the Congress and the rest of the Opposition during our six years in office," he said.

He said a Minister, especially one holding the crucial External Affairs portfolio, was expected to defend the country's Defence and foreign policies before International audiences with conviction and persuasive skills. "Sadly here was a Minister, who was apologetic to the point of self-deprecation about the fact that India has become a nuclear weapons power."

Despite the Prime Minister seeking to do some damage control with his "clarificatory" statement in Parliament on the matter, it was well known that many constituents of the UPA, notably Congress and the Communists, had never reconciled themselves to accepting India's nuclear power status, he said.