It would be unacceptable if the Indian vote against Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Gulf state's nuclear issues was linked to the Indo-US agreement on the civilian-nuclear cooperation, Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan said.
Besides, he referred to the opposition the Congress faces on the issue from its Left allies and said some of their leaders seem to be giving a way out to the Manmohan Singh government by stating that it would be okay if India abstains in the next vote when the US would push for referring the issue to the United Nations Security Council.
Attacking the government's disinvestment policy, Mahajan told reporters in New York on Friday that there was a need for developing a national consensus on the issue as, he noted that every five years, the ruling parties could change and there would be confusion if each tries to follow it own course.
What is needed is to decide on the sectors in which disinvestment should take place and it is not advisable to follow a policy of selling public sector undertakings which are making loss and keeping those which are profitable, he said.
"The undertaking profitable today could go into loss tomorrow. It depends on many factor as to why an undertaking is profitable and why is it losing," he said.
In addition, Mahajan asked, "who would buy a losing undertaking."
Therefore, disinvestment, he said, should be decided on sector-by-sector basis irrespective of profit and loss and for that it is important to draw up a national policy on which every major party is on board.
Replying to a question, he said he did not envisage any power struggle in BJP if L K Advani stepped down as its President and added that the party always had a collective leadership.
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