A landmark nuclear agreement between India and the United States
drew stiff opposition Monday, both from within the Indian ruling
coalition and the main opposition party, which said the current
version would humiliate the country.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party called the agreement
"unequal" and said it would impose tough conditions that would
effectively hobble India's nuclear program, while the country would
have no assurance of uninterrupted fuel supplies for its civilian
nuclear reactors.
"The US has been shifting goal posts and the government of India
has not only been acquiescing in it, but adopting them as the
latest benchmark," Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader, said in a
statement.
Arguing that the agreement would bind India's future nuclear
capabilities, the BJP has urged the government to reject the deal's
"humiliating" conditions.
"The deal is more unequal than ever before ... India's nuclear
weapons program will be subject to intrusive US scrutiny," Sinha
said.
The deal, approved by the US Congress on Saturday, would allow
shipments of civilian nuclear fuel to India, overturning a
decades-old American anti-proliferation policy. India is not a
signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
The approval paves the way for US President George W. Bush to
sign the legislation into law.
But the version approved by Congress raised concerns in India
over provisions that could limit its right to reprocess spent
atomic fuel and employ other sensitive nuclear technologies, and
would require Bush and his successors to determine if New Delhi is
co-operating with Washington's efforts to confront Iran about its
nuclear ambitions.
The law also drew criticism from India's two main Communist
parties, both members of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling
coalition government.
The Communists stopped short of rejecting the deal, but called
on the government to seek clarification from the Bush
administration of clauses that the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) said would "seriously undermine" India's foreign
policy.
"This is an attempt to bind India to US strategic interests. We
fear it will adversely affect our independent foreign policy and
our strategic autonomy," CPI-M chief Prakash Karat said.
The government has said the deal will end decades of isolation
imposed on India's nuclear and high-technology agencies.
Ruling Congress Party lawmakers said the opposition had not
considered the merits of the deal.
The agreement creates an exemption in US non-proliferation law
allowing American civilian nuclear trade with India in exchange for
Indian safeguards and inspections at its 14 civilian nuclear
plants. Eight military nuclear plants would be off-limits in the
deal.
(China Daily December 12, 2006)
