NEW DELHI: With the US disclosures blowing apart the governments claims on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the BJP on Thursday accused prime minister Manmohan Singh of misleading the country and parliament and demanded an immediate session of the parliament to move a breach of privilege motion against him.

BJP vice president Yashwant Sinha and the partys Rajya Sabha MP Arun Shourie said the disclosures in US administrations letter to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee were nothing new, but confirmed what they have been saying all along and nailed the "lies" told by the PM.

"Now, it is clear that the Bush administration wanted to keep this letter confidential. If this 26-page letter had been made public before July 22,2008 (the day of the trust vote), the Manmohan Singh government would not have survived. We have serious objections to this as it is not the role of the US to save a government in India or to make sure it falls," said Sinha adding that the letter leaves no doubt that this deal does not contain any binding commitments by Americans and others regarding fuel supplies or transfer of technology.

"It is a disgrace we have to rely on disclosures from US sources rather than our own government to know the truth," Shourie said. "This is a breach of the privilege of parliament. The BJP demands that a session of parliament be convened in the shortest possible time so that we can move a breach of privilege motion against Singh," Sinha said.

In a pointed rebuttal of the PMs statements in parliament, Shourie said: "The Bush administration has maintained it will not transfer enrichment and reprocessing technologies while the UPA government claims the cooperation would be full, including such transfers." On Singhs statement in parliament that he would not allow foreign inspectors to roam around in Indian nuclear facilities, he said: "The word inspectors was replaced by experts. It is clear now that the deal will be terminated and all (fuel) supplies will be stopped the moment India goes in for nuclear tests and all materials supplied to it will have to be returned."

Shourie said Singh spoke of "corrective measures" in case of disruption in fuel supplies but the US administration claims India hasnt provided definition of such steps.

The government claimed India would not agree to the deal unless uninterrupted nuclear fuel supply was assured. This was only possible if interruption does not result from "any fault of India" but by market disruption. If the US feels there is violation by India like not allowing "experts", supply would be stopped. The agreement would also be off, if there is anything on which the US feels India has done constitutes a material violation of agreement.

The PM said in case the fuel supply is disrupted, the US would coordinate with other nations to ensure supply. But para 16 of NSDG guidelines provides that suppliers would coordinate among themselves to determine the violation and take action, Shourie said.
Source : DNA