New Delhi: Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave on Saturday asserted that there was no link between India’s bid for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership and ratification of the Paris agreement and the decision to ratify the deal on climate change was finalised after a number of internal consultations about its implications.
He stressed that there was no pressure on the government and said earlier statements given by leaders at various forums were “in their own capacity”.
“We do not like if somebody puts pressure on us (and) that is why we also do not pressurise anybody. But we believe in putting across our points very strongly. The subject of ratification is looked after by the Prime Minister and the Environment Ministry. And whatever happened, it is there in front of everybody.
“Rest, if different views have been expressed in different forums, they might have said that in their own capacity. There has been no pressure on us. We just wanted to check the opinions of our stakeholders,” Dave told reporters.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it clear that India does not pressurise others, nor takes any pressure and that India’s interest is foremost.
“While taking the decision to ratify, this subject (NSG membership) was not there. There is no connection between ratification and (NSG) membership,” the minister said.
He said the Environment Ministry and the Prime Minister were concerned with the ratification process and before announcing the ratification, there were two important aspects which were considered by India.
“There were two things on our minds before we reached the decision to ratify. First we wanted to carry out internal consultations — how would this decision effect our laws etc. To complete this procedure, it took us time. After doing this, we came to the conclusion that we would not have to make much changes and we could ratify the deal.
“We did a large level of internal consultations. We also wanted to see whether our interests will be taken care of when we go forward with implementing the Paris deal in the future. These two things were very important which is why it took us time,” Dave said.
The Union Cabinet on September 28 approved the proposal for ratification of the “historic” Paris climate deal which will be formalised on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, days after Modi announced this at BJP’s National Council meet in Kozhikode.
Dave said India will strongly put forward its point of bringing lifestyle changes and adopting a “Gandhian” lifestyle as well as climate justice in the forthcoming Conference of Parties (CoP22) scheduled to take place in Marrakech in Morocco in November.
