What could be a major embarrassment for the Bharatiya Janata Party is a claim made by a U.S. embassy cable to the State Department in Washington — part of WikiLeaks and now in the public domain — that the former U.S. Ambassador here, David Mulford, succeeded in somewhat blunting the party's opposition to the nuclear deal; he was able to make some impact especially on L.K. Advani, who was later the party's prime ministerial candidate in the Lok Sabha election 2009.
The cable dated 6 November 2007 takes note of various developments related to the nuclear deal and claims that although the BJP “continues to speak in conflicting voices” it appears to have “softened its opposition to the [nuclear] agreement, in part due to the Ambassador's meetings with BJP leaders.” It further notes that on October 30 [2007] the party spokesperson stated the BJP would “not insist” that a debate on the agreement be conducted under a parliamentary rule that requires a vote. The spokesperson also said his party “will drop” its earlier demand that a joint parliamentary committee be set up for examining the nuclear agreement.
Significantly, the cable noted: “…the most important BJP pronouncement on the issue was made by Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, who supported the call for a full Parliamentary debate but pointed out the government is not constitutionally bound to accept the opinion of Parliament on the issue, rebuffing [CPM general secretary Prakash] Karat's shrill insistence on an enhanced and more formal role for Parliament in Indian foreign policy formulation.” That particular BJP-related cable ends on that note.
Against this background, what actually happened in the party is as follows: Yashwant Sinha was virtually given the job of articulating the party position on the nuclear deal after it was hammered out at a meeting attended, among others, by the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The party decided to strongly oppose the deal. Well after Mr. Sinha had gone to the extent of saying his party would rescind the deal and “renegotiate” it when it comes to power — if it was to go through in the form it was in — Mr. Advani on a visit to Hyderabad on 26 August 2007 said the BJP would have no problem with the deal if the Hyde Act could be amended in Washington and the Indian Atomic Act here to ensure India's strategic independence. In between, Mr. Mulford had held a series of meetings with several top BJP leaders.
On that visit to Hyderabad, Mr. Advani had taken with him a couple of reporters so that his statement could make a big splash, which it did. Here in the capital a number of senior party leaders were upset with that statement. Mr. Sinha and some others cornered Mr. Advani for taking a position contrary to the party's stated position. He was virtually forced to retract at a press conference in the presence of Mr. Sinha and some other senior leaders.
Of course, all along the party position had been that it was not opposed to a strategic partnership between India and the United States.
The biggest blow to the BJP's nuclear deal stance came when the former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, abandoned the BJP's position to become a supporter of the deal.
