Saturday, July 23 2005 20:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Criticising the Centre's 'double speak' on the Indo-Iran gas pipeline, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today (July 23, 2005) expressed doubts whether the ambitious project would see the light of the day.

Referring to the apprehensions and doubts on the project expressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a newspaper interview in the US, senior BJP leader and former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said, "It (his remarks) tantamount to cutting the feet of an important project of the Government".

Taking pot-shots at 'the energetic, active and able' Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, he said, while the Minister was pursuing the project and projecting it as an addition to India's energy requirements.

"The Prime Minister has pulled the rug from under the feet" of a project which was being pursued for the last 18 months. We doubt whether the project will see the light of the day", he said.

Asked whether the Prime Minister was under 'US pressure', Singh said, "I am unable to speculate what other thought process he had."

On the Prime Minister's US visit, he said the BJP Parliamentary Party executive will make an authoritative statement on it after the Prime Minister's statement in Parliament and it would be an add on to the initial reaction of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the Indo-US nuclear agreements.

Earlier in the day, BJP Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha V K Malhotra had accused the Prime Minister of 'changing his tone' on the Indo-Iran gas pipeline and asked the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to come clear on the issue.