CTBT: consensus eludes BJP

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, AUG. 23. There is no consensus on India signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty even within the Bharatiya Janata Party, not to speak of the other political parties. And the BJP leaders have indicated that no major effort has been made to bring the party around to the Government's view tilted in favour of the CTBT.

About ten days ago, a meeting of some party MPs and senior leaders was attended by the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, where they let him know their views against signing the CTBT. Reportedly, party leaders were also critical that some noises in favour of signing the CTBT were made from ``foreign soil'' and they wanted to know how much American pressure was there on the Government.

Privately, senior party leaders have also been critical of the Government for signalling, every now and then, as if India was about to sign on the CTBT dotted line. What is the need now to say this when Mr. Bill Clinton has been unable to get a ratification of the CTBT from his own Congress? That is the argument being advanced.

It is also no secret that the RSS top brass is dead set against the CTBT as they view this as limiting India's options in the nuclear field. The BJP's own stand was against the CTBT, except that after Pokhran, the Vajpayee Government began indicating to the Americans that it was getting ready to sign the CTBT, but before that it would have to prepare the political ground and build a national consensus.

In fact, it is said that on this issue the Vajpayee Government will not be able to easily defy the RSS leadership or go against its wishes without endangering its own life. There was considerable criticism within the BJP of the Prime Minister's statement during his visit to Lisbon for the India-European Union summit that he was hopeful of evolving a consensus on the CTBT during the monsoon session of Parliament. The BJP was quite embarrassed as in the past it had been critical of Congress(I) Government leaders making statements on major policy matters from foreign soil, as that smacked of ``foreign pressure''.

Ahead of the party's national council session in Nagpur, once again there are indications that neither is there a consensus in the party on the issue nor has any serious attempt been made by the Government to build a consensus within the party. How can you create a consensus among other parties without sorting out that matter at home? This was the question being asked.

It is being suggested that since this is a sensitive issue, the BJP's resolutions at the national council are likely to skip it to avoid an embarrassment to the Government and the party.

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Section  : National
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