By IANS
New Delhi : Defending the India-US civil nuclear pact in the face of a hostile opposition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday assured parliament that it was a “good deal for India and the world” that will provide the country much-needed energy security without compromising on its strategic autonomy or independent foreign policy.
In his robust defence of the deal, which has come under attack from the leftist allies of the government as well as the chief opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Manmohan Singh stressed that the 123 bilateral pact “does not in any way affect India’s right to undertake future nuclear tests” and provides New Delhi rights to reprocess used nuclear fuel and permanent fuel supplies for nuclear reactors India plans to put under international safeguards.
Allaying apprehensions of the opposition and critics of the pact, Manmohan Singh said the 123 pact did not require regular American certification and did not affect either India’s military nuclear programme or its indigenous three-stage nuclear programme.
“I had given parliament my assurance that the government will make every effort so that the vision of the joint statements of July 2005 and March 2006 becomes a living reality. I believe that we have redeemed that pledge,” Manmohan Singh told the lower house, Lok Sabha, in a suo motu statement on the 123 bilateral civil nuclear cooperation pact between India and the US.
“The agreement does not in any way affect India’s right to undertake future nuclear tests, if it is necessary in India’s national interest,” stressed Manmohan Singh, while alluding to apprehensions expressed by a section of the opposition that the 123 pact, which is silent on the issue of testing, deprives India of its sovereign right to do so.
“Let me hence reiterate once again that a decision to undertake a future nuclear test would be our sovereign decision, one that rests solely with the government,” the prime minister said.
“There is nothing in the agreement that would tie the hands of a future government or legally constrain its options to protect India’s security and defence needs.”
The 123 agreement, however, acknowledges the US’ right of return of nuclear material and fuel sold to India in case of termination of nuclear cooperation with India. It provides for a consideration of the circumstances, including a change of security environment, before taking the extreme step.
“If I might sum up, this agreement does not in any way inhibit, restrict or curtail our strategic autonomy or capabilities. Our rights to pursue our three-stage nuclear power programme remain undiluted,” Manmohan Singh emphasised while referring to the criticism of BJP that has alleged that the 123 pact robs India of its strategic autonomy.
In the Lok Sabha, Samajwadi Party and BJP MPs kept chanting slogans till the end of the prime minister’s 25-minute address, calling the nuclear deal a US “trick” and a fraud on the people.
The slogans exhorted the government to scrap the pact and warned against becoming “stooges of America”. The din made it nearly impossible to hear exactly what the prime minister was saying.
“In concluding this agreement, we have ensured that the autonomy of our strategic programme is fully maintained, and that Dr. Homi Bhabha’s long-term vision remains our guiding principle,” Manmohan Singh said while stressing that India’s nuclear weapon programme was outside the purview of the 123 pact.
In an oblique reference to the objections of the Left parties that have expressed fears that the deal may dent India’s independent foreign policy, Manmohan Singh said: “Thus, there is no question that we will ever compromise, in any manner, our independent foreign policy. We shall retain our strategic autonomy.
“Today, India stands on the world stage as an influential and respected member of the international community. There is independence in our thought and independence in our actions,” he said.
“India is too large and too important a country to have the independence of its foreign policy taken away by any power,” he added.
“I am neither given to exaggeration nor am I known to be self-congratulatory. I will let history judge; I will let posterity judge the value of what we have done through this agreement,” said Manmohan Singh, while underscoring that the deal will open the doors of global nuclear commerce for India after a gap of three decades and bring to an end the technological denial regime.
“Let me end by saying that we have achieved an agreement that is good for India, and good for the world.”
Singh said the nuclear pact was an acknowledgment of India’s growing weight in global affairs that “will open new doors in capitals across the world”.
“In days to come it will be seen that it is not just the US but nations across the world that wish to arrive at a new equilibrium in their relations with India. This agreement with the US will open new doors in capitals across the world.
“It is another step in our journey to regain our due place in global councils. When future generations look back, they will come to acknowledge the significance of this historic deal,” the prime minister avowed.
Underlining that the specifics of the accord had fulfilled all assurances made by him to parliament on several occasions over the last two years, he said the deal has ensured uninterrupted fuel supplies for the lifetime of safeguarded nuclear reactors by providing for development of strategic fuel reserve and granted it the “permanent right” to reprocess spent fuel.
Saying that New Delhi negotiated this deal as “an equal partner” with Washington, the prime minister also stressed that the India-US nuclear agreement was one “between two states possessing advanced nuclear technologies, both parties having the same benefits and advantages”.
“We have negotiated this agreement as an equal partner, precisely because of the achievements of our scientists and technologists in overcoming the barriers placed around us in the past. This is an agreement based on the principle of mutual benefit,” he said.