Amarinder asks Modi what new he achieved in US trip
Thursday, 02/10/2014
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Chandigarh : Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spell out to the nation as what new and fresh he had achieved for the country from his just concluded US visit.
“Hype and hyperbole apart, the Indo-US strategic partnership is a long and continuous process and it would be wrong to relate it with one single event or one single visit of a Prime Minister to that country,” he remarked in a statement issued, here, while stating, “nation was curious to know as what were your substantial achievements during the current visit which the previous government had not been able to do.” The senior Congress leader observed, “As the dust starts to settle down over the Prime Minister’s recent US visit, it emerges that at best Modi has been able to get a commitment over the continuation of the strategic partnership between India and the US built up by the previous UPA government.”
He pointed out that whether it was taking further the Indo-US nuclear deal, which incidentally Modi’s party BJP opposed so vigorously and brought a no-confidence motion against the previous UPA government over it, or announcing to set up an Indo-US interagency to speed up setting of the US built nuclear reactors in India, there was nothing new that has come out of this visit. He disclosed that for building up strategic partnership in defence, the ‘Defence Framework Agreement’ was signed between India and the US way back in 2005 under the UPA regime.
Besides, he said US President Barack Obama had declared India as a ‘strategic partner’ in 2012 because of the trust and confidence built up by the previous UPA government. “We will like to know, if there is something more that has been done during your much hyped visit to that country,” he said. Referring to the investment in defence production, Amarinder pointed out that this again had already been done by the UPA.
