By IANS
Chennai : AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalitha tuesday demanded that the union government “constitute a committee of experts, parliamentarians and citizens” to study the 123 Agreement of the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying it compromised India’s sovereignty.
Jayalalitha’s statement said that the agreement has clauses that are against India’s interests. “There are very deleterious clauses working against India’s sovereignty,” she said.
“Our research centres, atomic power processing, atomic power plants and the disposal of atomic waste after use will come under the supervisory control of the US,” Jayalalitha alleged.
Criticising the government for “burying the position held by past prime ministers that the atomic energy department should be independent and self-reliant,” the present government, the AIADMK leader said, “gives the reason that raw material for atomic plants in India is scarce, which is a very lame and feeble excuse”.
The nuclear deal with the US lets the US intervene in “our future atomic and raw material research and future production of atomic weaponry. This nuclear deal not only interferes with production of atom bombs for India’s military purposes, but also with nuclear plants for civilian use at every stage”, she claimed.
The agreement has “secret clauses and an overweening jugglery of words”, Jayalalitha alleged.
In addition to criticising the deal, Jayalalithaa has also sought an amendment to the Constitution, making it mandatory to obtain the approval of two-thirds of the members of both houses of parliament, whenever such an agreement is made with foreign countries.
“But the Union government is functioning with the idea that no debate on this subject should be allowed in Parliament, and also that no such debate should ever be permitted even in future”, she said.