Nuke deal stalemate a ploy to divert attention from price rise

Ranchi, June 29 (PTI) The stalemate between the Congress
and the Left over signing of the nuclear deal with the US
seemed to be a ploy to cover up the Centre's inability to
control price rise, BJP president Rajnath Singh said today.
"Curbing price rise looks beyond the UPA's control now. At
the same time neither the Congress and its allies nor the Left
parties are ready for elections. So the stalemate on the
nuclear-deal has suddenly erupted," Singh told a press
conference here.
He alleged that the present economic condition of the
nation was due to the UPA government's wrong policies during
the last four and a half years.
"That is why the UPA and its allies have hatched a
conspiracy to change the agenda of the political debate which
should have focussed on price rise", Singh said demanding
immediate rolling up the curtains on the fate of the Indo-US
nuclear-deal.
Claiming that the results of the recent assembly elections
held in various states was a reflection of the party's
popularity, he said the BJP was the "first choice" of the
people.
"The Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government had faced
Kargil war and sanctions against the country following the
nuclear tests. Still our government had controlled prices
deftly because of the NDA's constructive policies," Singh
claimed here.

40 years on, NPT in urgent need of overhaul: experts

Vienna, Jun 29 (AFP) The Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty or NPT, which celebrates its 40th birthday this week,
may have succeeded in keeping the number countries in
possession of nuclear weapons down to a mere handful.
But the treaty, drawn up during the Cold War period,
is now in urgent need of an overhaul if it is to meet
present-day challenges such as the proliferation crises in
North Korea, Iran and most recently Syria, experts said.
Experts believe the United States is undermining the
NPT, not only by repudiating its disarmament commitments, but
by seeking to carve out special exemptions from the rules for
allies such India.
It was therefore up to the United States to take the
lead if the NPT is going to survive, the experts said.
Opened for signature on July 1, 1968 and put into
effect on March 5, 1970, the NPT is the most universal arms
control treaty in force.
Its stated goal is to stop the nuclear arms race and
seek nuclear disarmament.
Five countries that had tested nuclear weapons before
the treaty's completion -- China, France, Russia, Britain and
the United States -- were recognised as nuclear-weapon states
and obligated to pursue "effective measures" toward nuclear
disarmament.
All others were designated non-nuclear-weapon states
and prohibited from acquiring nuclear arms at all.
And with the nuclear states apparently reluctant to
dismantle and destroy their nuclear arsenals, the non-nuclear
weapon states see little incentive to keep their part of the
bargain.