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

No commitment on CTBT, Jaswant assures LS

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh today assured agitated Opposition members in the Lok Sabha that the government has not made any commitment to the United States to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in its present form.

On export control on technology or weapons of mass destruction also, India has a better record and the present government has not deviated from the country's established stand, the minister said.

He was responding to a number of Opposition members who said during zero hour that American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has testified before the senate foreign relations committee that India had pledged to sign the CTBT. They said this was contrary to what Jaswant Singh stated in the House two days ago in reply to Professor P J Kurien (Congress).

Jaswant Singh said he did not want to comment on what was testified in the United States. India's stand on these issues was categorical, explicit and unambiguous, he said. He stood by the statement made in the house and said the prime minister also reiterated India's position in the UN General Assembly.

Earlier, raising the issue, K Natwar Singh (Congress) sought a clarification from the external affairs minister. He also wanted know to whether the government has received any telegram from the Indian embassy in Washington about Albright's statement.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram recalled the contradictions in the published statements on this issue by India and the US and wanted to know whether the government was making any secret deal behind Parliament.

Former prime minister I K Gujral (JD) said the national consensus was against signing the CTBT in its present form. But the government has started negotiations. Indian leaders were getting more information from the American side than the Indian side, he said.

Gujral said there were suspicions on the government stand and therefore there should be a full debate on the issue.

Professor P J Kurien (Congress) said with the statement of Albright a great deal of confusion has been created as this was just opposite to what Jaswant Singh had told him in a reply.

Dr Subramanian Swamy (Janata Party) wanted the minutes of the Indo-US talks to be tabled in the house.

Somnath Chatterjee (CPI-M), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Roop Chand Pal (CPI-M), and Buta Singh (Independent) also wanted the foreign minister to clarify the position and remove the confusion.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report