National interests will be kept in mind in nuke deal: PM
by Pankaj Yadav

     New Delhi: Almost all the major political parties cautioned the United Progressive Alliance Government to be wary of the United States as far as the signing of the civil nuclear deal as Washington had a track record of backtracking from its promises. Almost all the parties expressed the fear whether the accord would get the required mandatory clearance from the US Congress, and whether India would get the uninterrupted supply of nuclear fuel. Giving clarifications in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, Dr Manmohan Singh said that he would take every possible step to ensure that the "country's enlightened interests" are not compromised. He also allayed the political parties' fears about the regular supply of the nuclear fuel.

    The Samajwadi Party attacked the UPA Government for toeing the US' line and voting against Iran "which has always been India's socialist friend", only because the Government wanted energy security in the form of the civil nuclear energy cooperation with the US. Taking part in the discussion, party member RP Verma said that the Government must realise the fact that the US was trying to make India a "personal trade zone" and counter Chinese influence in South East Asia. CPI-M's CK Chandrappan and CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta jointly moved for discussion in the Lok Sabha (under Rule 193) on the statement made by the Prime Minister on March 7 regarding the civil nuclear energy cooperation with the US in the context of the recent visit of the US President George Bush. The CPI-M described the civil nuclear energy cooperation deal as a "compromise with the basic ethos and principles of the country such as non-alignment and independent foreign policy".

    The party said that by signing the deal India had become a party to the US' global geo-political ambitions. Chandrappan alleged that the basic interest of the United States was to prop up India to counter the growing power of China. He said that the treaty entered was of an "unequal nature", and expressed doubts over whether the US was sincere about implementing it, having a poor record in this connection. The Communist MP referred to, what he alleged, the dubious record of the US involvement in a number of cases when it overthrew governments which did not toe its line. "US was an unreliable partner and in any case the treaty would only be implemented after it is ratified by the US Congress," he added. Chandrappan said that the Congress was going against the traditional stance of the Party from the days of Jawahar Lal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Chandrappan said Nehru had refused to shake hands with Mussolini "since he was a fascist dictator in Italy", while the UPA government had gone the whole hog to roll out a red carpet for Bush. Recalling the historic speech made by Rajiv Gandhi at the UN whereby he said that he wanted India to be a super power, another CPI-M member Muhammad Salim said that the Congress was "jettisoning" Rajiv Gandhi's vision. The main Opposition party, the BJP criticised the Union Government for "succumbing" to US pressure and agreeing to allow 16 nuclear reactors to be safeguarded. BJP's Uday Singh said that while generally the nuclear power countries were not subjected to nuclear safeguards, the UPA Government allowed two thirds of the country's nuclear reactors to be inspected by international agencies. Initiating a discussion over the same issue in the Rajya Sabha, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said that the Indo-US joint statement of March 2, was "far from protecting the enlightened national interest".

    He said: "It seems that sovereignty, nuclear parity and reciprocity have been compromised." The former union minister was inquisitive as to what happened to the assurances and promises made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh days before signing of the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Cooperation agreement that India's national interests "would be fully safeguarded". Later, replying to the day-long discussion, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that India had not accepted a cap on its strategic nuclear capability while entering into the civilian nuclear deal with the US. Assuring that he would take into account all the suggestions made in the Parliament today, Singh said he would keep in mind the enlightened national interests. "We will not forego the three stage programme which will enable us to utilise the vast thorium reserves in future," he said in Lok Sabha. The Prime Minister said that through the deal his Government had "widened development options for meeting the adequate energy needs of the country" and had taken "full care" to ensure that the strategic programme of the country was protected. "It is a step forward which will take the country on a higher growth and development trajectory," he said adding that research and development opportunities would also not be adversely affected due to the Indo-US agreement. The Prime Minister said the US has given a number of assurances for un-interrupted supply of nuclear material for use in civilian reactors but in case of any stoppage the country has the "right to take corrective measures". He also assured the Lower House that the confidentiality of the strategic programme had remained "fully protected and will remain fully protected". On the issue of closure of CIRUS reactor located in BARC, which has been declared a strategic site where no foreign inspection would be allowed, the Prime Minister said that only the fuel core of other nuclear reactor APSARA would be shifted and not the reactor itself. Further explaining, he said that this was because the BARC was an institution of "high national security importance and will not be allowed any international inspection."

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