New Delhi, March 15: In a significant statement, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh on Tuesday advocated revision of the country’s no-first-use doctrine in the nuclear field formulated by his own NDA government citing changes in the global scenario.
Initiating a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Demand for Grants for the Ministry of External Affairs, the BJP leader also attacked the government’s foreign policy, particularly in relation to Pakistan, China, other neighbours as also the West Asia and cautioned against making any compromises with national interest.
He referred to the new classified documents, revealed by the website Wikileaks, about the US view on India’s approach vis-a-vis Pakistan and wondered whether the UPA government’s foreign policy was being framed in Washington.
Delving in the nuclear issue, Singh said while India has only 50-60 warheads, Pakistan has 100-110 warheads whose location even the US was not aware of.
The former minister also highlighted the recent global events like increased assistance being extended by China to Pakistan in the nuclear field.
Noting that the security concerns are multi-dimensional and policies of 20th century will not work, he pressed for a revision of the nuclear policy “with a sense of urgency”, particularly of the no-first use doctrine formulated by the NDA government.
“…(Nuclear) policy of NDA is greatly in need of revision …Please hold broader consultations,” he suggested to the UPA government, adding “Time will not wait for us.”
The government should also take into confidence the Opposition while revising India’s nuclear policy, he said.
As regards policy towards Pakistan, Singh asked the government “not to bank on the US” to resolve issues with the neighbour.
“We will find answers left to ourselves. You will never find a solution through US,” he said, while noting that India has better knowledge about Pakistan as he himself as well as party colleague L K Advani are from that country.
While talking about the Wikileaks, the BJP leader said he regretted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then former National Security Advisor (M K Narayanan) had different views on dealing with Pakistan.
According to the Wikileaks, the US Ambassador had found that while the Prime Minister wanted a talks with Pakistan, Narayanan had advocated a strong approach and had warned of expressing dissent openly.
Jaswant Singh said it was difficult to know whether India and Pakistan were moving ahead with the “spirit of Simla Agreement, the spirit of Sharm-el Sheikh or more recently Thimpu spirit,” he added.
Recalling the developments since Independence, Jaswant Singh said India’s foreign policy suffers from the collective mistakes of the Congress.
It was a mistake on part of the Congress to agree to partition of the country and leave the issue of Jammu and Kashmir unresolved, the BJP leader said, adding the Congress repeated the mistake by accepting China’s authority on Tibet.
Recalling the conflict of 1962 with China, Singh said, “in reality China is expansionist…that is the nature of China. It will continue to dominate. Already we have given a lot to China, let us not give our pride to China.”
Attacking the government for its foreign policy, the BJP veteran alleged that it was being framed in Washington.
—-Agencies