The Hindu : New Delhi News : Allow the nuclear deal to be debated, says Sibal

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Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
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Allow the nuclear deal to be debated, says Sibal

Special Correspondent

“Government cannot put the deal on hold ”

“All aspects of fuel supply are granted under the pact”
Much better deal than what China achieved in its pact with U.S.

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal has said the National Democratic Alliance and the Samajwadi Party should allow a debate in Parliament so that the concerns of the Left parties on the nuclear deal with the United States could be addressed.

At a press conference minutes before the Left parties reiterated their stand, Mr. Sibal urged them to refrain from precipitating the matter before hearing out the Government.

Asserting that the Government could not put the deal on hold but was open to debating and discussing it, he said: “I cannot cross a river we’ve not reached.”

The agreement was not going to be operationalised before December, 2008 and unless there was a debate, the misgivings that had arisen out of “preconceived notions,” could not be addressed.

Mr. Sibal was confident that the nuclear agreement would be taken up on the sidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in September

He pointed out that Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act — that requires a bilateral agreement with any prospective trading partner — was independent of the Hyde Act. “The India-U.S. nuclear pact, which will be ultimately approved by the U.S. Congress, is not subject to any U.S. national law. The Hyde Act, which is a national law, does not bind the U.S. President. ”

Mr. Sibal said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had ensured that all aspects of complete nuclear fuel supply were granted under the agreement.

This included supply of nuclear fuel, reactors and reprocessing of spent fuel. Besides, there was a provision that it would not hinder India’s weapons programme.

The Minister asserted that the agreement with Washington was a much better deal than what China had achieved in its pact with the U.S.

Transparent

“You cannot give the example of China. China was not granted the right to reprocess spent fuel and it took 13 years for implementation of their treaty. We have no skeletons to hide.

We are open and transparent. There should be a debate and there should be no politics in it.”

The Government was in no “danger” but if it comes to that, any party had to be ready for elections.

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