India Has Been Saved of Horrible Insult at NSG, Says Congress

New Delhi: India has been saved of a "horrible insult" at the Nuclear Suppliers Group as it could have been much worse than what happened there, Congress on Wednesday said.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj claiming that India will be able to convince China on the issue, underlines the failure since there is "admission of failure" on her part.

He also said his party would support the government if it does hard diplomacy and not credit everything to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"I think India has been saved of a horrible insult, it could have been much worse," he said, adding that India should have gone to NSG with 100 per cent plus preparation.

"She (Swaraj) told that government will be able to convince China. On the contrary, I think what you have quoted which is very important underlines the failure -- there is an admission of failure," he said.

Singhvi also said, "We will support the government if it does hard diplomacy, we will be the happiest, but if the object is to say just before the PM reaches there, he has achieved this, then it will never work."

He said the object has to be hard-nosed, ground leveled diplomacy and "not to project the PM as the ultimate magical button".

"First and foremost, it is moot question whether without 105 per cent preparation; we should have at all sought NSG membership at this stage. That is a larger debate that we had earlier. Non-formal membership has caused us no prejudice with the kind of effective diplomacy done by the Manmohan Singh government. I certainly agree that we should be member of the NSG but only after 100 plus per cent preparations," he said.

He said if India is now trying to convince China on the issue, it is like "you are not trying to close the stable doors after the horses are bolted".

Singhvi said India should have done this homework well before it applied for NSG.

"That is the meaning of quiet diplomacy not event management, not optics," he said, asking what about the other countries which are more friendly to you than China that never gave the "unqualified and unambiguous approval" and were having "ifs and buts".