Govt lied on N-deal, says BJP chief

New Delhi: BJP President Rajnath Singh today apprehended that the UPA Government may have misled Parliament on Indo-US nuclear deal because the details given before the Parliament on the issue and those presented before the US Congress did not tally with each other.

Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day BJP National Executive participated by the top leaders, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition L K Advani, Singh said the fears expressed by Vajpayee after the deal was signed were coming true and questions were raised about India's nuclear defence capability in the name of developing civilian nuclear programmes.

He said withholding Agni III tests by the UPA government had raised several questions because it was not clear if these tests were a result of self assessment as claimed by Defence Minister or was prompted by need to cater to strategic requirements of power nations of the world.

"Every alert citizen wants to know because stopping the tests was a setback to indigenous missile development programme in contrast to the decisions taken by the previous government in 1999 when the country went ahead with Agni II tests braving a strong economic and military sanctions imposed against India."

"It is clear that country's defences have now been weakened under the UPA," he said.

Expressing concern about India's neighbours emerging as centers of anti-India conspiracies, Singh said these activities, which use to happen only in Pakistan were now occurring from Bangladesh too.

He said the previous government exerted pressure on Pakistan to declare that it would not allow its territory to be used against India but under the UPA, terrorists were striking at will from Doda to Delhi and Varanasi to Bangalore.

He said the Army was stunned at the proposals to withdraw from strategically important Siachen Glacier, considered as the world's highest battle ground.

For the first time in history, the Chief of Army Staff had come out twice openly, once against the Muslim-head count and now against withdrawal of forces from Siachen.

"The BJP under all circumstances will not tolerate withdrawal of forces from Siachen in the garb of improving relations with Pakistan," he declared.

The party was concerned about the situation in Nepal. The LTTE was becoming pro-active in Sri Lanka and Talibans were raising their ugly heads in Afghanistn.

"This is a story of failures of foreign policy of the UPA Government," he remarked.