The Hindu Business Line : Contretemps over nuclear deal

India’s Left parties are to be heartily congratulated for taking a firm stand against the operationalisation of the nuclear deal. At one stage, it looked as if they were willing to let the Government negotiate the India-specific safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and even initiate a discussion with the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on the modalities of securing the fuel, technology and equipment in case the NSG found the safeguards satisfac tory.

This would have been tantamount to carrying the process of operationalising the deal right up to the brink from which it would have been difficult to pull back, without relations with the US, the NSG and the IAEA being ruptures beyond repair.

It was like saying that the marriage cannot be solemnised, but the bride’s and bridegroom’s sides can go ahead with the purchase of the mangala sutra and the jewellery, arrange the priest and fix the contract for the mar riage feast!

Fortunately, the Left parties have realised the mistake in time and made it clear that they are not for the Government approaching the IAEA or the NSG until the Government gives a convincing clarification for all the grave doubts to which the provisions of the miscalled 123 Agreement have given rise.

Those who, like the columnist, had known Dr Manmohan Singh from his early days in the Indian Economic Service, and had always thought him to be a decent, discerning public servant with the interests of the nation at heart, were shocked to see him permit himself to include in his suo motu statement to Parliament explanations of the many contentious clauses of the agreement which did not at all reflect the true state of affairs.

By supplementing the Prime Minister’s statement with his own far-from-correct asseverations, the Minister of External Affairs, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, too has drawn several red herrings across the debate.

To call a spade a spade: It is being too clever by half to contend that the Henry J. Hyde Act governing the nuclear cooperation between the US and India does not bind India.

It is the fountainhead of all actions being taken by the US in regard to nuclear cooperation. It unequivocally and indisputably binds the US, and the US Administration, if it is not to be indicted for indulging in violation of the law, is bound to obey its prescriptions, and enforce India’s compliance with them.

Trust belied

The Act is categorical that the moment the US President determines that India has conducted a test, any agreement for full civilian nuclear cooperation “shall cease to be effective”.

That means not only stoppage of any further receipts of fuel, technology and equipment, but the returning all that had already been supplied back to the suppliers.

The enormous investments, perhaps amounting to tens of thousands of crores up to that stage, on power stations and associated infrastructure would thus go down the drain. Yes, as Mr Mukherjee claims, India’s sovereign right to conduct a test is there, but the question is at what cost.

The annual certificates that the Hyde Act requires the President to furnish cover information on both safeguarded and unsafeguarded (strategic, weapons-related) facilities of a kind that is so prying as to make a mockery of India’s sovereignty and self-respect.

By denying sensitive nuclear technology and dual use items, and by being nebulous about uninterrupted fuel supplies, and in many other respects, the agreement belies the trust placed in it by Indian public opinion.

In this most sensitive matter at least, the Left parties have been speaking not only for themselves, but also for the scientific community, the patriotic Indians and the country as a whole. They have, therefore, every justification to stick to their stand.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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