With India and the US getting ready to make one more attempt to break the logjam over the nuclear deal, BJP on Friday raised the sovereignty ante, expressing apprehension that the UPA coalition was on the verge of signing off an agreement which would compromise the country’s quest for a credible nuclear deterrent.

The party’s warning came from former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who in a letter cautioned the government against finalising the nuclear cooperation agreement with the US without explaining its position in Parliament. He argued that the issue needed to be deliberated in detail before the deal was formally inked. Briefing the media on Vajpayee’s letter, former union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie said the former PM felt that a taskforce set up to review New Delhi’s disarmament, non-proliferation and security policies could be used to change the country’s nuclear policy in order to bring it in conformity with a tough US law on the nuclear pact.

Shourie, in fact, asserted that Vajpayee had made his statement on the basis of information that he had, and which had raised the Opposition’s apprehension about the assurances that PM Manmohan Singh made in Parliament on August 17, 20\06.

Vajpayee’s letter and the remarks of Shourie and Sinha suggested that the principal opposition party could be digging in its heels to take on the government on the deal. In fact, Sinha sought to cast BJP as the principal opponent of the deal, declaring that his party would seek no support from the Left in its opposition to the deal since the CPM had earlier backed out after striking a deal with the government. "Their’s is only a proforma protest,"the former foreign minister said of the Left.

"The setting up of the taskforce at this juncture is nothing more than a veiled move towards reversing our nuclear-related policies with a view to bringing them in conformity with many of the highly objectionable provisions of the Hyde Act; and then to pretend that the changes have been undertaken by US autonomously,"Vajpayee said in his letter.

The BJP said the visit of the high-powered Indian team headed by national security advisor M K Narayanan later this month also pointed to a finalising of the deal. Vajpayee insisted that Washington’s confidence that the India-US nuclear deal would be concluded before the end of this year might also be linked to review of New Delhi’s policies. The BJP veteran maintained that various provisions of the Hyde Act were designed to stymie development of India’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

"The two, which will have the greatest adverse impact on our national security are those pertaining to the ban on nuclear tests by India and its working actively with the US for the early conclusion of a multilateral fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT)," he said.

The former PM noted that India was presently free to resume nuclear testing, which he said might become necessary in response to moves by other countries.

Operationalisation of the nuclear deal, Vajpayee added, would therefore clearly require a change of policy on nuclear testing. "It would be a grave mistake to do so as it will compromise our capability to keep abreast of other countries in nuclear weapons development,"he said.

"It would be most unfortunate if we agree to verification by national technical means as the US, with the most advanced intelligence system and technology, will be in the driver’s seat in terms of operationalising the FMCT,"he added.

Vajpayee noted that the US, in such an event, would undertake "finger pointing in terms of those in violation of the FMCT”.