The Hindu Business Line : Yashwant Sinha calls for national debate on N-deal

India should not accept this kind of second-class membership of the Nuclear Club. `Our bilateral ties should be based on dignity, national interest and self-respect'

MR YASHWANT SINHA

Kolkata , April 18

Making an impassioned plea for a nationwide informed debate on the Indo-US Nuclear deal, particularly on the issues of energy security and national security, Mr Yashwant Sinha, former Finance Minister, who has also held the portfolio of External Affairs, said here that "public opinion must reject the deal", as he suspected that even the scientific establishment was unhappy with the agreement.

Suggesting that he was not willing to buy the nuclear energy argument, he said, "There is very little understanding of the deal both in India and the US." Under any case, any policy on N-power has to be based on national consensus. Hastening to add that he was not a US baiter, Mr Sinha said India should have the best of bilateral relations with the US. "Our bilateral ties should be based on dignity, national interest and self respect, and the basic guiding principle should not be sacrificed."

Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Swadesh Research Institute, he said nobody can be in favour of a deal which was so intrusive. India, which has always taken a principled stand by not signing the Non Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, should not accept this kind of second-class membership of the Nuclear Club. He said the NDA Government would never have signed such a deal.

Raising questions over economics of generation and resultant tariffs, Mr Sinha said the issue merely did not pertain to shortage of fuel (in this case uranium), but also that of high cost of nuclear energy. Pitching for indigenous plants, if at all we have to have nuclear power, he said post-Chernobyl (in erstwhile Soviet Union) disaster, the question of unlimited damages liability should be understood clearly.

A nuclear power unit, which has longer gestation periods, costs nearly Rs 10 crore per MW (if imported) as against Rs 4.5 crore for coal and Rs 3 crore for gas, he pointed out. And in an overcrowded country like ours, where is the fresh land and space for setting up these N-reactors, he asked.

According to Dr D.R. Agarwal, director of the Institute, the deal may affect our on-going research, and divert us from the self-reliance model Indian scientists have been able to develop through their dedicated efforts over the last six decades.

On the issue of national security, he said under the deal, India will be required to make to IAEA disclosure of its entire nuclear civil programme, which was not required prior to the signing of the deal. A separation plan (separating civil and military facilities), according to experts, will be operationally difficult, he added.

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