By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : The BJP alleged that the IAEA draft agreement shows that India would be bound as a non-nuclear weapon state in perpetuity and said the US was pushing the deal through as it would bring India under the non-proliferation regime.
“In his address to the Lok Sabha (Lower House) on July 29, 2005, the Prime Minister said we shall undertake the same responsibilities and obligations as the US. We expect the same rights and the benefits as the US. And India will never accept discrimination,” senior BJP leader Arun Shourie told reporters here on Monday.
Shourie said this assurance had been flouted in the IAEA draft agreement as it does not recognise India as a Nuclear Weapons State (NWS).
Quoting the Prime Minister’s statement in Parliament on August 17, 2006, Shourie said, “As a country with nuclear weapons, there is no question of India agreeing to a safeguards agreement or an Additional Protocol applicable to non-nuclear weapons states of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty).” India has opposed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) over decades, terming both as discriminatory.
He said that the Prime Minister had also assured the nation that the agreement was India-specific.
“Far from it being an India-specific agreement, the accord resembles IAEA agreements with non-nuclear weapon states,” Shourie said.