Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who is out of India for a short visit, took to social media to take jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the NSG fiasco. In a tweet, Rahul equated the failure to gain membership with failed Modi diplomacy. CPI too said India should not think if the US has agreed to a slot for New Delhi in Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG), everyone else will agree to it.
“NSG: How to lose a negotiation by Narendra Modi #FailedModiDiplomacy”, tweeted the Gandhi scion. This came after the attack from other Congress leaders at PM Modi.
The Congress, who termed the developments at the NSG meet an “embarrassment” to the country and a “huge diplomatic letdown” by the Government, questioned the “desperation” to gain membership of the elite nuclear club.
Senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma too came down hard on the Modi-led Government. “We do not know why India showed its desperation and allowed the country to be equated with Pakistan on the issue of NSG membership,” Sharma said.
For his part, CPI General Secretary D Raja said the BJP and the party-led central Government should first take Parliament into confidence on such foreign policy matters. Raja said that in 2008, India could not get technology despite a waiver from NSG due to the “adverse” position taken by the US. "Why India is not questioning the US on thisIJ...The US is supporting India now because it wants to capture the market here,” the Rajya Sabha member said.
“It is not China (which is) stonewalling the membership, but BJP and the Government that have created hype over the issue after the US assured support for NSG membership. NSG is a body which has its own criteria and regulations. India should not think that once America agrees, everyone will agree,” Party’s Raja said in a statement.