BJP pats itself, Communists oppose nuke pact

     Ahmedabad/Bangalore: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh, on Saturday expressed satisfaction over India clinching of a landmark nuclear deal with U.S that had been the centrepoint of President George W Bush's three-day official visit to the country. The deal, which would give India access to U.S. nuclear technology to meet its soaring energy needs, was sealed on March 2 in New Delhi. Singh said though true jubilation eluded him, he was satisfied the way the deal had gone through. The BJP chief, however, credited former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the National Democratic Alliance, which he led, for the pact. "We are not very happy with the Indo-U.S. nuclear energy pact, but we are satisfied. The deal can be attributed to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the National Democratic Alliance as the very foundation stone for the deal was laid during the Vajpayee government," said Singh in Ahmedabad.

    Under the deal, India has agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear programmes and place the civilian plants under international inspections. In return, the United States is offering nuclear technology and fuel. That would end decades of nuclear isolation for India, which was placed under international sanctions after conducting nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998. The deal, agreed in principle last July when Singh visited Washington, ran into trouble due to differences over India's plan to separate its military and civilian atomic plants.

    India's Communists, providing crucial outside support to the government, however, reiterated their apprehensions regarding the deal. Sitaram Yechuri, politburo member of Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that the Fast Breeder Reactors should not be placed under the civilian list and thus under the international inspection. "India is one country in the world which has the largest known resources of thorium. If we have a thorium-based nuclear fuel, then we are independent of any country and therefore of any consequent pressure that those countries may put on us. So we want this research not to be hampered. Fast Breeder Reactors - the moment they came to civilian list, they'll be open to safeguards, all sorts of inspections and there'll be delay in process of research. So we say that Fast Breeder Reactors should not be put in civilian list," Yechuri said in Bangalore. The deal says the Fast Breeder reactors - a major sticking point in negotiations- would be inspected at India's discretion. The deal has also been buffeted by strong opposition from non- proliferation lobbies in the United States and India's nuclear establishment, which has balked at American interference in what has been an isolated, indigenous nuclear programme. India has refused to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, calling it discriminatory, leading to its isolation. India's extensive atomic weapons programme to counter Pakistan and China's nuclear arms is a further concern for some members of the U.S. Congress, who have cast doubt on the viability of any deal between Singh and Bush.

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