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How could you make nuclear plans public, Mulayam asks PM

Former defence minister and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav today accused Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of ''betraying the country by making public the information about our nuclear preparations''.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, he said, ''These matters are sensitive and confidential, but Vajpayee has disclosed them to the entire world.''

He said, ''The defence of the country is top priority, but the prime minister demeaned it by making the announcement about the nuclear tests at a press conference."

''Not only this, the prime minister went a step further by revealing the device as a hydrogen bomb, something the neighbouring countries were not aware of.''

''After all, these are the things the foreign spies look out for, but the Indian government supplied the information on a platter,'' he added.

The prime minister and his government's action had alerted other nations, and this was not in the interests of the security of the country, he added.

Yadav, while complimenting the scientists and defence experts for the feat, said the BJP government could not take any credit for this. "It was only the scientists community who did us proud on this issue," he said.

The country's nuclear preparations were kept so secret that even the chiefs of the armed forces were not informed about it, he said. The present government has undone all the efforts made by us, he alleged.

Dismissing the government's claims about the nuclear tests conducted at Pokhran on May 11 and 13, the former defence minister said the groundwork was already done by the United Front government.

Asked why the UF government could not gather the courage to go in for the nuclear tests, Yadav replied, ''The security of the country, rather than political motives, were supreme for us. The election was round the corner and we did not want anybody to conclude that we wanted to take political mileage out of it.''

In fact, as the then defence minister of the country, he said it was he who expedited the process and made funds available to the Defence Research and Development Organisation for the purpose. ''We always tried to keep it confidential, unlike the present government,'' he added.

The SP chief alleged that the BJP was hobnobbing with the United States government on this issue. There was no logic in writing a letter to the Clinton government stating that the tests were conducted by India as a precautionary move against China and Pakistan.

''Why should we disclose the purpose behind it as it is an internal and confidential matter?'' he asked. ''Moreover, it had alerted them as well,'' he added.

Asked about the imposition of sanctions by some countries, he said India should immediately ban MNCs from those countries from operating in the Indian consumer market.

UNI

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