The Hindu : National : Brajesh Mishra trashes India, U.S. nuclear agreement

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 01, 2006

National

National

Brajesh Mishra trashes India, U.S. nuclear agreement

Says deal could compromise New Delhi's strategic interests

Brajesh Mishra

New Delhi: Brajesh Mishra, Security Adviser to the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Tuesday trashed the July 18, 2005 civilian nuclear deal signed between India and the United States during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's landmark summit visit to that country.

Talking to ANI, Mr. Mishra said that the so-called historic deal of bilateral reciprocity could end up compromising New Delhi's strategic interests and its status as a non-proliferating entity in the international community. ``The ... deal should be thrown in the waste paper basket," Mr. Mishra said..

It would have been in New Delhi's interest to have some amount of understanding with the United States and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on the issue of sharing civilian nuclear energy. "But, the way in which the July 18 deal has been expressed an d elaborated, it indicates America's intent of restricting our (India's) ability to have more nuclear weapons, and it is bound to hit on our strategic capability," he added.

American pressure

Recalling past deliberations on India's nuclear policy, Mr. Mishra said there had always been a consensus, but under the present administrative dispensation, "our strategic capability and effort to have minimum nuclear deterrence is sought to be curbed by the Americans." ``They want to have a credible programme of submission of all our nuclear reactors to the IAEA safeguards, and if we do this, then we can."

Asked whether any artificial deadline was being created, Mr. Mishra said: "The lure of the Bush visit [to India in March] and its being successful has been equated with the success of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal."

The present scenario could change only if Washington unconditionally accepted New Delhi as a nuclear power.

"The idea of credible minimum deterrence is flexible, as it would change with the prevailing geo-political situation," he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail