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Nuclear deal : PM silences critics

	August 21, 2006

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended the Indo-US nuclear deal effectively in the Rajya Sabha, Upper House of Parliament, on Thursday, August 17, swinging the mood in the House on the issue in his favour. An eloquent defence of the deal and assertion that India will not accept any extraneous conditions helped in securing the open approval of Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) and grudging acceptance by former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha of the BJP. Sinha said he was 60 per cent satisfied with Dr. Manmohan Singh’s response though some of his key questions remained unanswered.



On his feet for over an hour, the Prime Minister began his speech by recalling that he had been similarly accused of compromising the national interest while initiating economic reforms in the early 1990s on being handed over a bankrupt economy by Yashwant Sinha who had initiated a debate on the nuclear issue on behalf of the BJP. Dr. Manmohan Singh said the nation today stands tall and fast growing because of the decisions taken in the early 1990s.



“So I speak with some experience though I may be a novice in comparison with the skills of Jaswant Singh, Sinha and Arun Shourie (of the BJP), said Singh. “I’ll discharge my duties for the country to the last ounce of my blood.”



The Prime Minister said he was not in a position to predict with certainty the final form the US legislation would take, but he was hopeful that it would lead to “lifting all restrictions” that had been there for decades on India’s nuclear programme and long-term cooperation. He said the path identified by the Government was the right one. “I’m aware of the risks involved. But for the sake of India, I’m willing to take those risks,” he said, quoting from Machiavelli’s Prince.



Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted that the government was concerned with the two versions of the India-US nuclear Bill in the US Congress. But he assured the Rahya Sabha that if the final Bill passed by the US Congress is not in consonance with joint agreement of July 18, 2005, India will draw its own conclusions. He said, “There is no question of India being bound by a law passed by a foreign legislature.”



The PM’s one-hour-long reply - replete with emotion and some tough words - had three sections: one dealing with general criticism of the Indo-US nuclear deal, second on nine specific points of departure pointed out by CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and the third addressed to eight scientists who had issued a joint statement.



The PM said he would meet the scientists on August 26 to evolve a consensus.



PM’s speech drew immediate approval of CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, who insisted that his reply be taken as the “sense of the House.”



Beginning his reply on an autobiographical note, Singh talked of poverty and how energy security is the key to a 8-10 per cent growth target.



Quoting Machiavelli’s Prince, he said moving from status quo always disrupts the existing way of thinking. In this regard, he referred to being labeled a US agent in the 1990s.



“I have lived with it. I am strong or weak, history will judge,” he said, referring to a remark by T.T. Krishnamachari that “tigers are on the prowl in Delhi”. Singh said: “For India’s sake, I am willing to take the risk.”



Delving into details about how India’s foreign policy would not be subservient to US or any country, the PM said he has bluntly made it clear to US President Bush that Iraq was a mistake.



“However, I do not apologise that good relations with the US are in our national interest,” he said, explaining how the proposed nuclear deal would end three decades of India’s nuclear isolation.



“We have made it clear to the US that India’s strategic programme is totally outside the purview of the July 18 statement... There is no question of American inspectors roaming around our nuclear facilities,” he said. He also asserted that India would not go beyond the unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing and said no extraneous inspections of India’s nuclear facilities would be allowed other than the India-specific inspections programme being worked out with the IAEA.



In a speech that was clearly meant to send the “your concerns are my concerns” message to the band of critics from the Left, Right and the scientific community, Singh asserted that India would have “great difficulty” in accepting the final product of the US legislation “in its current form.”



However, he reiterated that he had expressed these concerns to US President George Bush personally and had a reasonable assurance from him that the US administration would abide by the July 18 framework agreement.



Describing the US as a “pre-eminent power” , he said good relations with it were in India’s national interest.



The Prime Minister said that energy production was the primary motivation of India’s nuclear programme. “We should be able to make effective use of nuclear energy on an economic scale. I am aware of the risks and I am willing to take risks for India’s sake,” he said.



He also rejected the suggestion that the deal will make India a NPT country. “There is no question of India joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state,” he said.



In a bid to allay the apprehensions of the scientific community, he said there would be no external supervision of our research and development work.



‘Sense of Parliament’ move non-starter



With the Prime Minister’s reply, the CPI(M) dropped its demand for a ‘Sense of Parliament’ resolution on the Indo-US nuclear deal. CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury said while there need not be a resolution, there should be some reflection of what Parliament’s stand was. Yechury’s remarks, political observers said, conveyed a clear message that the CPI(M) was no longer on board with parties like the BJP and the Samajwadi Party which had been pressing for a binding Parliamentary resolution on the issue. The CPI, another important constituent of the Left, had already disembarked from the resolution bandwagon.



During the short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP, however, stuck to its demand for the setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to monitor the Indo-US nuclear deal. Two former Ministers, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, speaking during the discussion, criticised the Manmohan Singh Government’s handling of the negotiations with the United States. They feared that the deal will spell an end to the country’s nuclear weapons programme.



Yashwant Sinha said atomic scientists and defence analysts were protesting because the Americans had gone back on all the assurances given by the Prime Minister to Parliament and the Nation.



Speaking outside Parliament, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V.K. Malhotra expressed dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister’s statement saying he should have instead allowed a ‘sense of House resolution.’



The Left parties, on the other hand, said the Prime Minister’s assurances could be accepted as the ‘sense of the House’ on the issue. Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) suggested in the Rajya Sabha after the Prime Minister’s reply that Dr. Manmohan Singh’s response to the issues raised could be accepted as the ‘sense of the House’ which the Left parties had been demanding.



Observers say that a transformed Manmohan Singh came out during his reply to the short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha. They say Manmohan Singh has been a Member of Parliament since 1991, but he had never been applauded as an exciting parliamentarian. “Never before did he display as emotionally combative speech as he did in the debate on the nuclear deal,” said an observer.



To those who questioned his professional competence to deal with so complicated an issue as the nuclear world, he asserted, “I have some experience” of dealing with economics and technology of nuclear business.



In an unusual personal touch, the Prime Minister reminded everyone that he was born in a poor family and had the blood of freedom fighters in his veins. He conceded that while he was a latecomer to the world of politics, he belonged to a party that had a proud heritage of having brought freedom to the country.



As the Congress benches repeatedly applauded him, Dr. Singh promised that he would do his best to promote and protect “the vital interests of the country.” In an unusually emotional pitch, Dr. Singh told the parliamentarians that he was in the “service of India” and was committed to “the last ounce of my blood” to work for freeing millions of Indians who suffer “day in and day out.”



In a way, Dr. Singh won the day even before he came down to the specifics of the nuclear deal. At the end of his performance, the Congress MPs were left wondering the transformation that overtook the Prime Minister.





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Natwar not allowed to speak



Suspended Congress member K. Natwar Singh was not allowed to participate in the short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the nuclear deal with the United States.



Citing procedural rules, House Deputy Chairperson K. Rehman Khan turned down Singh’s request for an intervention, as his name did not figure in the list of speakers submitted by the Congress.



Singh rose and sought permission to speak as soon as the Chair named Arun Shourie (Bharatiya Janata Party) as the next speaker. He wanted an opportunity to air his views, as he was the External Affairs Minister when the July 18 joint statement was agreed upon. “I was the External Affairs Minister when the deal was announced in Washington and I have the right to speak.”



When Khan said no permission had come from the Congress, Singh said he had given a notice to the Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat also.



He found support from the Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh and Shourie, who said the deal would impact the country for the next 50 years and the House should not be deprived of any important information that Singh had to share.



However, with the Chair remaining unrelenting, Singh’s participation remained limited to listening to the debate from the front row of the ruling party benches, which are usually occupied by senior Ministers.





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Nuclear scientists welcome PM’s assurances



Nuclear scientists have welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurances on concerns raised by them about the India-US nuclear deal. Former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman M.R. Srinivasan said they are looking forward to further discussions with the Prime Minister on the issue on August 26. Another former AEC Chairman P.K. Iyengar said, “The Prime Minister has made so many commitments to answer the scientists as well as opposition’s concerns and at the same time, he has not left out his commitment related to the American decision.”



On the separation plan for nuclear facilities, Iyengar said, “There should be a re-discussion on the separation plan more logically, and so that it could be easily negotiated with the International Atomic Energy Agency.”



Placid Rodruigues, former Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), said, “I welcome the Prime Minister’s categorical statement and assurances , but we have to seriously discuss the separation plans in detail again.”



The scientists said since the Prime Minister has assured that India will be treated at par with nuclear weapons nations as a de facto nuclear weapon state, it would follow that the nature of safeguards to be negotiated for Indian reactors would be voluntary rather than any that may be applicable to a non-nuclear weapon country.