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Don't give in to Bully Clinton, Jaya tells Vajpayee

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam supremo J Jayalalitha Saturday urged the Union government not to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty unless the United States lifted the sanctions fully.

In a strongly-worded response to US Ambassador in India Richard Celeste's statement asking India to specify its minimum deterrent needs, Jayalalitha said if the sanctions were still in place on the anniversary of Pokharan II on May 11-13, India should regard itself morally free to oppose the CTBT.

Blackmail through sanctions and threats should be met with firmness and resolve. India should be given the same rights as the other nuclear powers, she said.

The US ambassador should not confuse India with Britain, which was behaving like an American satellite, she added.

The Union government, the former Tamil Nadu chief minister continued, should clearly convey that it would not accept one set of rules for it and another for the nuclear weapon states.

Celeste should first get his government to reveal all facts behind the American nuclear doctrine and deterrent. Only then would he have the moral authority to ask India for the same, she said.

Jayalalitha also demanded India should insist that all the nuclear powers release the information simultaneously.

The AIADMK leader asked the American people to protest against the Bill Clinton administration to create an economic crisis in India through sanctions and by blocking loans from international agencies needed to remove poverty and unemployment from millions of homes.

Though Celeste's statement was couched in diplomatic politeness, clearly the Clinton administration was insisting on complete compliance with this and other conditions, she said.

Stating that the Indians had love and affection for the great American people, Jayalalitha said this should not blind us to the Clinton government's consistent anti-India policies - from the attempt to delink Kashmir from the rest of India, through the openly partisan attitude of US Assistant Secretary of State Robin Raphel, to the 1995 Hank Brown amendment that rewarded Pakistan for its nuclear proliferation and terrorism with anti-India weapons worth one billion dollars.

India would emerge as a superpower early the next century. Therefore, she said, it had every right to be treated at par with other major powers.

UNI

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