Vajpayee punches holes in Indo-US nuke deal
The nation will pay a heavy price in the future, says former Prime Minister
| He said India was now caught in a cul de sac on the nuclear issue where a U-turn was not possible, regardless of what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might think. |
| The timing of the statement is strategic as in the US, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today concluded her testimony in Congress, recounting the salient features of the deal and how much the US advanced its disarmament agenda by pushing it. |
| Vajpayee said what India should have tried to do""instead of capping its nuclear capability""was to get an all time waiver from Washington like China had done. He said the proposed legislation when passed by Congress "will convert a voluntary moratorium on further tests by India into a legally binding commitment for all time to come". |
| Asserting that "this position is not acceptable", he said India should retain the right to conduct nuclear tests if any country, such as China and Pakistan, were to do so. |
| Contending that the obligations under the bill are far more stringent than those under the Comprehensive Test ban Treaty (CTBT), Vajpayee said, "What is more shocking is that if the US President determines that India has detonated a nuclear explosive device after its (bill) enactment, such waiver shall be terminated". |
| When the Atomic Energy Act of the US was amended for China, Beijing was granted waiver in perpetuity. In case of India, it would be periodic. The US President will have to determine from time to time whether India is in compliance with the conditionality built into the Act. |
| "This position is also unacceptable," he said, adding "the least the government of India should do is to insist that there should be an all-time waiver by the US President as in the case of China." |
| The NDA chairman said he had expressed reservations about the Indo-US nuclear deal and many of his fears had "unfortunately" come true as the negotiations on this deal progressed. |
| The latest was the draft of the Waiver Authority Bill introduced in the US Congress, Vajpayee said, adding according to this Bill, the waiver would be granted by the US when India "meets its seven conditions, which were mentioned in the Bill". |
| "The course of action of the government of India, in the future will thus be determined not by laws passed by the Parliament or by international covenants to which we are party, but by the law framed by the US Congress," he said. |
| He also said the Prime Minister's logic that if the US or the nuclear suppliers group (NSG) did not keep their commitments, India would have the option to walk out of its commitments under the deal, was "seriously flawed". |
| The former Prime Minister said since India was planning to set up power plants at heavy costs, what would happen to that investment if fuel supplies for them were to be stopped due to an "adverse determination by the US President". |
| "The nation will pay a heavy price in future by closing its options on the size of its credible minimum nuclear deterrent. Our nuclear armed neighbours shall face no such constraints," he said. |