Saturday, April 22 2006 10:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Slamming the Indo-US nuclear deal as very costly, ill-assessed and an imbalanced agreement, the Opposition BJP yesterday (Apr 21, 2006) asked the Government to remove the 'grave doubts' which arose from US Secretary of State's testimony to Senate and House Committees.

"What the government has offered to the US results in a significant erosion of our strategic space, an abandoning of our autonomy of action, placing 90 per cent of our nuclear plants on surveillance by an intrusive IAEA regime and all this for just about eight per cent of our energy requirements of around 2025, which too will become operational in about 15-20 years only if all goes well" said Jaswant Singh

"This is a very costly, an ill-assessed and an imbalanced agreement", Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh told reporters here.

The former External Affairs Minister, who had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier in the day, said the BJP has worked for and was committed to a healthy, flourishing and cooperative relationship between the two sovereign nations "even if they be unequal in national power quotients at present".

"This agreement, designed by the UPA Government and its allies, is not in accordance with our national interests, and that is the only litmus test; of national interest against which we can assess issues of such crucial importance", he said.

Quoting extensively from the US Secretary of State's testimony on issues ranging from Nuclear Weapon State status to Iran, he demanded that the government unambiguosly answer the grave doubts raised by them.