Indo-US Nuclear deal.

Indo-US Nuclear deal.

BJP leader L K Advani on Thursday 10-7-2008 charged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with “deceiving the nation” on the Indo-US nuclear deal and, marking out NDA’s role as the principal opposition, said the government had chosen to approach the IAEA in a surreptitious manner.

After a meeting of the NDA, Advani mounted a powerful attack on the government for its “decision to go to IAEA” within a day of having committed itself to do so only after a confidence vote in Parliament. The leader of the Opposition accused the PM of sharing the draft with “the rest of the world before doing so with the people of India”.


NDA’s attack was sharp, perhaps all the more so with Left having moved completely into the opposition space. Hitting at the government for its haste, after the Left pullout, in trying to seal the Indo-US agreement, Advani said the government had lost all credibility and its word could not be believed. “A minority government has bartered away national interest through the back-door,” he said.

Pointing out that external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had, barely 48 hours ago, categorically declared that the government would approach IAEA only after a trust vote and that the assurance followed consultations with the Prime Minister, Advani said the draft had been circulated even before the PM returned from the G8 summit.

The government had approached IAEA and circulated the draft among 25 IAEA board members. Such was the PM’s keenness to move ahead with the deal that he had spoken of approaching IAEA “very soon” even as Mukherjee invited the Left for a final meeting on the pact.


Expressing his apprehension that the deal was deeply flawed, Advani asked, “What is the government trying to hide?” He said NDA suspects there is a “conspiracy afoot to present the nation with a fait accompli on the deal by rushing through it behind closed doors”.
Advani said. “No government, least of all a minority government, can be permitted to make commitments on an issue as fundamental to the country’s long-term interests and national security.


[Short Story of the Agreement]
[The safeguards agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency was released to the public on Thursday 10-7-2008. The text acknowledges the unique nuclear category India will occupy if the Indo-US nuclear deal is completed - that of a recognised nuclear power who has not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

An additional clause addresses the Department of Atomic Energy fears that international inspectors may steal ideas from its precious three-step thorium cycle. Thus, the inspectors must take "every precaution to protect commercial and industrial secrets" and keep their paws off technology and components indigenously developed by India.
In India, the opposition has argued the text falls short on supply guarantees. This forgets the IAEA does not provide nuclear fuel, it only allows countries to do so.


Sources say the IAEA's board of governors will convene in Vienna between July 28-30 to debate and vote on the agreement. The safeguards are the least political and most technical of the four negotiated texts that the nuclear deal has generated so far.
If a majority of the board fails to approve the agreement, the Nuclear Suppliers Group cannot even consider asking its members to join the US in waiving the nuclear sanctions that India faces. Indian officials are relatively optimistic about the chances of approval by the IAEA. It requires only a majority vote by the board.]


Painting the Congress-led government as untrustworthy, with just months to go for a slew of assembly polls followed by Lok Sabha elections, Advani remarked, “If its senior-most minister’s solemn declaration about seeking a trust vote can be so summarily overturned, how can Prime Minister be trusted with anything? It is capable of going back on assurances even before the ink is dry.”

Let us wait and see.