Govt misled country on N-deal: BJP

Stating that the government has kept the country in the dark about several aspects of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, the BJP today sought clarifications on several issues.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh sought to know if India was a nuclear weapon state without signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). He also asked the government to clarify on US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement that India would "unilaterally" adhere to the NPT and the demands of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG).

If this was the case, the government must come out with a clear statement, Singh said. NPT and NSG obligations cap nuclear testing. Singh also referred to Rice's statement that energy and non-proliferation were "two halves of this same walnut". He asked if the nuclear deal was about energy, as the prime minister said, or arms control. He wanted to know if Rice's remark that India was a "potential participant in the proliferation security initiative" was true.

Singh said the government had been quiet on the Additional Protocol negotiated by the IAEA, while the external affairs ministry had discussed the issue with the US Administration. The protocol, he added, was going to be examined by the US Congress. He said this ran counter to the government's word to Parliament that only after the "Waiver Bill" was enacted would the government talk with the IAEA.

Singh said India had unilaterally volunteered to give up control over production of fissile material and had, according to some Congress members, committed itself to signing "something more than NPT." Singh wanted to know what this meant.

He questioned Rice's assertion that in the future, India would be permanently prohibited from nuclear testing and asked if this did not amount to capping of the nuclear programme.

Singh said the government had offered the US an erosion of India's strategic space and abandoned autonomy of action by placing 90 per cent of its nuclear plants under the IAEA surveillance.

"All this for just about 8 per cent of our energy requirements. This is a very costly, ill-assessed and an imbalanced agreement", he said.