Shourie says 123 text may expose UPA's "verbal camouflage"

New Delhi

28 July 2007

Only a careful study of the text of the 123 Agreement would ascertain

whether National Security Adviser MK Narayanan and the other Indian negotiators were

indulging in "verbal camouflage" or whether there was a "substantive gain" for India

from the nuclear deal with the United States, according to a BJP leader.

A member of the Rajya Sabha and former Union minister, Mr Arun Shourie, on Saturday

said that the UPA Government's claim, that the 123 Agreement does not contain

reference to detonation or testing, was "completely misleading" because in the event of

cessation of cooperation, each country will be governed by its national laws, which

meant that the US will continue to be governed by the Hyde Act and the US Atomic

Energy Act.

He told this newspaper: "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [told Parliament] about

[India's] unfettered right to build a fuel reserve. He had said that India will be able to

buy more fuel to stock. I had then pointed out that the Obama Amendment allowed

only so much fuel as was required for operating a plant, so there was no question of

reserves. So does the government now say it can build up a fuel reserve?"

Mr Shourie said that there was no disagreement in the BJP on its opposition to the

nuclear deal and the BJP will want to study the text of the 123 Agreement, when it was

made available to it. "These are serious matters ... [let the] text come up and [let] all

study [it] and not be misled by the spin [given by the government]," he said in response

to a question.

American newspaper The Washington Times has quoted anonymous Congressional

officials, who were briefed by the Department of State officials, as suggesting that the

123 Agreement was deliberaly written in a way that can be interpreted differently by India

and the US. "The way the Indians are reading it is not correct from the Administration's

point of view," an official told the newspaper. "The idea that the Indians will test, and

we'll help others circumvent our laws to send them fuel is ridiculous," the official added.