Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha on Sunday flayed the Narendra Modi government over its vigorous push to get Nuclear Suppliers Group membership, saying there was no need for it as India stands to ‘lose and not gain’ by becoming a member and alleged that people sitting in the government were ‘misguiding it everyday’.
The BJP veteran, who has often been critical of the Modi government after being sidelined in the party, said India should not have gone to the elite grouping as an ‘applicant’ and should not accept NSG membership as it has already got what it needs.
“India which has shown so much keenness and desperation in getting NSG membership, it is not required at all. We are comfortable outside NSG. If we become members of NSG, we will have more loss. There will be no gains for us.
“I say this strongly that India should not accept the NSG membership. We should not go there as an applicant. Whatever we had to get, we have got it,” 83-year-old Sinha said.
His comments come after India’s push for becoming a member of the NSG came a cropper at the plenary meeting of the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group recently as divisions persisted over admitting non-NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) members with China leading the opposition to it.
Ahead of the meeting, India had pushed its case with a number of countries, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the charge and also meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tashkent urging him to take a decision on India's membership on merit while seeking Beijing’s support.
“Whether those sitting in the government understand this (issue) or not, I do not know. But I know this that such people are sitting in government who are misguiding it everyday,” Sinha said.
Sinha, who was External Affairs minister in the previous National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has spoken out against various aspects of Modi government’s foreign policy, especially its handling of Pakistan.
Terming the developments at the NSG meet in Seoul as an ‘embarrassment’ to India, the Congress too had hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he needs to realise that diplomacy needs ‘depth and seriousness and not public tamasha’.
Latching on to the terrorist attack in Pampore that killed eight Central Reserve Police Force personnel, Sinha also said that ‘nothing’ has come out, or will, of the Centre’s Pakistan policy.
In an apparent swipe at Modi, the 83-year old Sinha said he comes under the ‘category of brain dead’ but is still giving his advice.
“I come under the category of brain dead. My class is that I do not have the status of giving any suggestion. I am saying this openly that I cannot even give suggestions. But I have publicly opposed the policy of my own government which they are following with Pakistan.
“I have stressed that if I have even some experience of (issues involving) Pakistan and about foreign policy, then nothing will come out of this (present policy). In two years, nothing has come out till now,” he said.
