New Delhi
20 July 2007
Negotiation for a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the
United States has not reached the point of no return, so India should summon courage
and opt out rather than accept the provisions of the Hyde Act that compromise her
nuclear sovereignty, according to former minister of external affairs Yashwant Sinha. He
also said that the BJP would reconsider the deal if it came to power.
He told this newspaper that a dedicated reprocessing facility under internal safeguards
was completely against national interest. He exclaimed, "Even Iran has not accepted
this offer (of reprocessing under international supervision)." He suggested that the UPA
Government made that offer under American pressure.
Mr Sinha said, "We believe that the Government of India made this offer of a dedicated
reprocessing plant under international safeguards under US pressure because the US
has said that it cannot change the Hyde Act or change its law, particularly Atomic Energy
Act." He felt it was a US suggestion which India was claiming as her own.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurances to Parliament are in danger of being
violated. We hope he comes to Parliament before the deal is sealed and aigned so that
we know whether it conforms with his assurances. Anything short of those assurances
will mean Parliament has been taken for a ride," he asserted.
Reacting to a report published by this newspaper, he said that the deal would make India
a dumping ground of international nuclear waste and "stymie" the three-stage nuclear
programme. He also said that the American and Indian positions were virtually
irreconcilable and it would be naive to accept the US conditionalities.
Another BJP leader and former Union minister of human resource development, Dr Murli
Manohar Joshi, said that the nuclear deal was "one-sided" in favour of the US. "The US
can stop supply of fuel or scrap the deal altogether but India has no escape route," he
warned. "It will kill brutally and ruthlessly the Indian bomb."
He told this newspaper, "The UPA must come clean on the status of the talks and share
with the people and parliament of India the nature of text (of 123 Agreement) that will be
presented to the US Congress, if resolution is in sight." The monsoon session of
Parliament is expected to begin early next month.
He said, "As far as I am concerned this deal should be scrapped, if there is political will."
He felt that energy cooperation was a "Mukhota" (mask) because the US was guided
solely by its desire to force Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty on India "by the backdoor".
He observed that it was never the intention of the US to give India the status of nuclear
weapon state. The US, he said, wanted to control India's nuclear sovereignty and stop
further test but it was silent on Pakistan and Israel. "India is being pressured while an
irresponsible country like Pakistan is free," he said.
He suggested that successive Indian governments had not been able to see through the
game of denying optimum use of uranium. "I have a stong suspicion that certain forces
are putting obstacles ... we know who they are. All these agitations (against uranium
mining) are foreign-inspired," he added without elaboration.
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