Cong.(I) panel takes fresh look at nuclear policy

By Angana Parekh

NEW DELHI, MAY 2. The Congress(I) is taking a fresh look at its nuclear policy. Its foreign affairs cell met this evening to discuss the stand on nuclear issues, including the need for a minimum deterrent.

The panel is scheduled to meet again tomorrow before finalising a draft that would be given to the party president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, and then the Congress(I) Working Committee for discussion. Party sources said the policy would be unveiled after the CWC approves the draft.

According to well-informed sources, it was likely the party would recognise that ``global realities'' had to be accepted and that once a country was on the other side of a nuclear threshold, it could not unilaterally engage in disarmament. The fact that Pakistan had also become a nuclear power would naturally be taken into account. While not using the same terminology, the party could endorse the deterrent line.

Though the Congress(I) stands by the 1988 Rajiv Gandhi action plan for phased, time-bound global disarmament, it is recognised that ``fine-tuning'' is needed to bring the policy upto date after the Pokhran II tests and Pakistan's Chagai explosions.

The party is reviewing its policy in the backdrop of the confusion caused by conflicting versions of Ms. Gandhi's meeting with the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, in March. She was said to have emphasised the need for a minimum credible deterrent, which was later denied. Reports from Guwahati over the weekend that the Congress(I) president had again spoken in favour of a minimum deterrent were denied today.

Following the Pokhran II explosion in May 1998, the Congress(I) had set up a working group to take another look at its nuclear policy. A year later, the group presented an updated Rajiv Gandhi plan for global disarmament in the context of Pokhran II, but the party did not get around to discussing it.

Today's meeting is a follow-up to the one held last month. At the last meeting, there was no consensus, reportedly because Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar opposed changing the party line. Experts such as the former Foreign Secretaries, Mr. Muchkund Dubey and Mr. M.K. Rasgotra, and former Ambassador to China, Mr. C.V. Ranganathan, briefed the panel today.

Today's meeting was attended by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. N.D. Tewari, Mr. R.L. Bhatia, Mr. Aiyar and Mr. Prithviraj Chavan. Since Mr. Natwar Singh, chairman of the foreign affairs cell, has been abroad for over a month, both meetings were chaired by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee.

It is not without irony that Mr. Mukherjee had first briefed the media on the Gandhi-Clinton meeting and quoted her as having favoured a minimum credible nuclear deterrent. This was later denied by the party spokesman, Mr. Ajit Jogi.

Following this, the party faced considerable embarrassment, not least when the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, challenged Ms. Gandhi in the Lok Sabha to clarify what she had actually said. Mr. Rajesh Pilot, a member of the CWC, had last week voiced the opinion that the party's nuclear policy should be clarified.

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