NSG bid a ‘vigorous push’, not required: Yashwant Sinha

The BJP veteran, who has often been critical of the Modi government after being sidelined in the party, said India should not have gone to the elite grouping as an “applicant” and should not accept NSG membership as it has already got what it needs. He insisted that for a country to be a member of NSG, signing of the NPT “is a must”.

“We were able to end discussion this week and we have a clear path forward for India to become a full member by the end of the year”, the official asserted.

Speaking to ANI, Sinha stated that the continuous assaults on the Indian defence, which has resulted in the deaths of several personnel, have given birth to a war-like situation between India and Pakistan.

India is not a signatory to the NPT, which it says is biased. “So there was no need of this desperation on the NSG issue”, Sharma said.

Srinivasan, who played a key role in the development of India’s nuclear power programme and Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), said that no evaluation was made about the perceived benefits of NSG membership.

India hopes that the NSG membership will allow it access to latest nuclear technology and global markets. Significantly, the sharp statement pointing towards Beijing came just 12 hours after the meeting of Indian Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tashkent. Indicating that India would continue to discuss the matter with China, he added that a relationship only moves forward if both sides are mindful of each other ” s concerns and priorities. Earlier, the chief Chinese negotiator, Wang Qun, continued to vehemently oppose India’s membership of NSG.

Chavan, who was the minister when India signed the civil nuclear deal with America in 2008, pointed out: “In 2008, nobody raised the issue of India’s NPT status and nobody put precondition about criterion”.

China also clubbed India’s entry with that of its all-weather friend Pakistan, which, too, is a non-NPT country.

India’s campaign for an entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group today came a cropper as the annual plenary of the 48-nation cartel ended without reaching a concrete decision on the issue of participation of non-NPT states.

The NSG’s special meeting later this year gives India another window of opportunity but China remains a challenge. “But we are confident that India would be a full member of the (NSG) regime by the end of the year”, the Obama administration official told PTI in Washington.

In a statement issued yesterday, Senator Edward Markey said that if India joined the Nuclear Supplier Group, it would be the only participating government in the organisation that was not a party to the NPT, weakening the NSG’s commitment to the treaty.