The Hindu : Front Page : We have the right to test: Pranab

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Friday, Aug 17, 2007
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Front Page

We have the right to test: Pranab

Special Correspondent

“Only restraint is our voluntary moratorium”

NEW DELHI: The country has the sovereign right to conduct a nuclear test and would do so if it is in the national interest, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

“The only restraint is our voluntary unilateral moratorium on testing declared by the previous government and continued by the successor government,” he said.

Mr. Mukherjee’s statement was in response to the turmoil in both Houses of Parliament over reports of the U.S. State Department spokesperson, Sean McCormack, comments on Wednesday that the nuclear deal would be terminated if India conducted a test.

“Sovereign decision”

“There is nothing in the bilateral agreement that will tie the hands of a future government or legally constrain its options. A decision to undertake a nuclear test will be a sovereign decision, resting solely with the Government of India,” the Minister said.

He pointed out that nowhere in the bilateral agreement on Cooperation for Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy with the U.S. was there a mention of “testing.”

The pact contained elaborate provisions in Articles 5 and 14 to ensure the continuous operation of India’s reactors.

The provisions include fuel supply assurances, the right to take corrective measures, and a strategic fuel reserve for the lifetime of India’s reactors in case of cessation of cooperation.

Prior to the clarification, he made it clear that the Government did not have any authentic version of the State Department spokesperson’s statement.

It was responding as members raised the issue on the basis of media reports.

Concerns addressed

Outside the House, Mr. Mukherjee told newspersons that all major concerns of the country had been addressed. India had been “assured” that the deal would neither touch the strategic programme nor affect the three-stage indigenous research and development programme.

The U.S. had also assured uninterrupted supply of fuel, he said.

Hyde Act, their problem

The Hyde Act contained “extraneous and prescriptive” provisions “not acceptable” to India. “Whatever stated in the Hyde Act is not binding on us. How they [the U.S.] deal with it is their problem.”

Section 103 of the Hyde Act contains provisions on India’s cooperation in containing Iran’s nuclear programme and India halting fissile material production.

Mr. Mukherjee said the Hyde Act was between the U.S. Congress and the administration, and not between legislatures of the two countries.

His statement echoes U.S. President George Bush’s observations a few days after the Act was approved last year. “Extraneous and prescriptive provisions of the Hyde Act are only advisory and will not be my foreign policy,” Mr. Bush said.