What was the hurry on NMD, Cong. asks Govt.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 3. The Congress today expressed surprise at ``the haste'' with which the Centre had endorsed the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush's nuclear doctrine. Articulating his party's point of view on the issue, the Congress Working Committee member and chairman of its external affairs department, Mr. Natwar Singh, said ``the Government's reaction did not serve India's interests as it was thoughtlessly premature and dangerously immature.''

The Government should have ``applied its mind, consulted other political parties and weighed the pros and cons'' before rushing to endorse the doctrine. It was all the more glaring that while even the U.S. allies like the U.K. and the European Union had reservations, as did important countries like China and Russia, ``India alone thought it fit to welcome the treaty.''

Expressing ``grave concern,'' Mr. Singh asked the Government to explain the reasons behind the tearing hurry. Accusing the Government of ``surrendering its room for manoeuvre,'' he said the endorsement marked a paradigm shift in nuclear policy and violated the national consensus that had existed for decades.

Mr. Singh said there were some parts in Mr. Bush's package ``that may appear reasonable'' - like the cut in the number of nuclear warheads - yet, a package had to be ``judged in (its) totality.''

The Congress would like to make a deeper study of the package in all its ramifications. It was only natural that the NDA Government, which had ``destroyed a national consensus'' on the issue in May 1998, would go along with the destruction of the international consensus.

Mr. Singh also stressed that India was a leading light of the Non-Aligned Movement and had consciously decided to stay away from power blocs. The Government, however, had abandoned that policy. ``We are not a satellite State and should not be in any camp,'' he said.

The Congress was for close Indo-U.S. ties in commerce, trade, science and technology and many other areas. ``The world's most popular democracy and the world's richest democracy have many shared interests and goals'' but the ``Vajpayee Government's reaction does not illuminate this shared vision.''

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