The Bharatiya Janata Party has welcomed the government’s stand that it would not sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapons State. At the same time, the party wondered whether India got a clean waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), as claimed by the government.
Against the backdrop of the move by the U.S. administration (that all States should sign the NPT) and India’s response to it (that it was against any discriminatory treaty that would enable the nuclear weapons States to keep their arsenal, while preventing others from acquiring nuclear weapons), BJP president Rajnath Singh said here on Friday that he welcomed the government’s stand.
Separately, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad wondered whether India had at all been given a clean waiver by the NSG as claimed by the government in the days and months ahead of the signing of the India-U.S. nuclear deal. Now that the U.S. seemed to be pressuring India to sign the NPT and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the government should clarify its stand, he said.
