ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Pawar blames BJP's policies for India's isolation

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sharad Pawar says the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's decision to conduct nuclear tests, coupled with "reckless" statements from Home Minister L K Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes against Pakistan and China had led to India's isolation at the international level.

Speaking at a meet-the-press programme in Nagpur, he said Indira Gandhi had displayed India's nuclear capacity way back in 1974 itself. Now, when the country was faced with poverty alleviation and other major problems, there was no need for going in for Pokhran II. And further, Fernandes's labelling of China as enemy number one and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's letter to the American president on similar lines had undone the good work done by previous Congress governments over 30 years to improve relations with China, he added.

Pawar said the failure of the Vajpayee government on the foreign policy front became apparent when India's well-wishers like South African President Nelson Mandela chose to refer to the Kashmir issue in his inaugural address at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Durban.

He denied that his party labelled Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav or Mayawati as "unreliable" allies at its Pachmarhi conclave, as reported in a section of the press . He also described as imaginary, press reports that he was isolated at the Pachmarhi camp and that he boycotted deliberations on economic and organisational matters in protest against the "undue" importance given to his party rival Arjun Singh at the camp .

Pawar explained that he deliberately skipped discussions on the two topics as he had chosen to speak on foreign policy. Being a member of the Congress Working Committee, he thought it fit to allow others to speak on these matters.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report