External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that India’s rights and obligations regarding civil nuclear cooperation came only from the bilateral 123 Agreement and not from the controversial Hyde Act.
“The Hyde Act is an enabling provision that is between the executive and the legislative organs of the US Government,” Mukherjee said in a suo motu statement on foreign policy-related developments in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
“India’s rights and obligations regarding civil nuclear cooperation with the US arise only from the bilateral 123 Agreement that we have agreed upon with the US,” he said.
The Minister referred to some statements by US officials regarding the applicability of the Hyde Act to the nuclear deal but did not elaborate.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said last month that the Bush Administration will “support nothing with India in the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) that is in contradiction to the Hyde Act”.
New Delhi has held that the Hyde Act contains prescriptive clauses that includes cessation of all civilian nuclear cooperation in case India tests a nuclear weapon and also restricts reprocessing of spent fuel.
Rice had emphasised that changes in the NSG guidelines, required by India to open up international nuclear commerce, will have to be “completely consistent with the obligations of the Hyde Act”.
To drive home the point, the US Secretary of State had said “we will have to be consistent with the Hyde Act or I don’t believe we can count on the Congress to make the next step”.
Mukherjee said, India was currently engaged in negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to arrive at an agreed text of an India-specific Safeguards Agreement.
The conclusion of such an agreement would enable the 45-member NSG to amend its guidelines for civil nuclear commerce in favour of India, he said.
“This will open the door to civil nuclear cooperation with various countries, including Russia, USA, France, UK etc with many of whom the necessary enabling bilateral agreements for such trade have been discussed and are in various stages of finalization”, Mukherjee said.
“We will continue to seek broad political consensus within the country to take forward our engagement on this issue with other countries,” he said.
Govt says evolving consensus on N-deal, Left issues warning
As the US continues to press India to conclude the nuclear deal at the earliest, Government today said efforts were on to evolve a broad political consensus on the issue.
The Left parties, however, insisted that there was no consensus on the deal and warned the government of serious consequences if steps were taken to operationalise it.
Making a suo moto statement in the Lok Sabha, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee defended the initiative, saying it was essential to ensure end to an “unfair technology denial” regime and sanctions faced by India for over three decades.
“We will continue to seek broad political consensus within the country to take forward our engagement on this issue with other countries,” Mukherjee said.
He did not elaborate but was clearly referring to efforts to overcome the stiff opposition by the Left allies to operationalisation of the deal with the US.
Seeking to allay the apprehensions of Left and other parties over the Hyde Act, Mukherjee said the legislation was an enabling provision between the Executive and Legislative organs of the US and India will have civil nuclear cooperation with the US under the 123 Agreement only.
“India’s rights and obligations regarding the civil nuclear cooperation with the US arise only from the bilateral 123 agreement agreed upon with the US,” he said.
The Left parties, providing crucial support to the ruling UPA, were not satisfied by Mukherjee’s statement and said the government “should not proceed further with the agreement” as “there is no political consensus”.
Asked whether Left parties would withdraw support if the government went ahead to operationalise the deal, CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said “we cannot continue support if it did so. … A small hint is sufficient for the wise (akalmand ko ishara kafi hai).”
Describing as “ironical” Mukherjee’s statement about seeking political consensus, the CPI(M) said “the government should first respect the majority opinion expressed by Parliament when the 123 agreement was discussed in the Winter session of 2007.
“The government should acknowledge that its stand on the nuclear deal does not have the support of Parliament,” it said.
Politburo member Brinda Karat asked why the government was talking about seeking consensus when the “consensus in Parliament is against the deal.”
CPI National Secretary D Raja said the majority in Parliament was “clearly opposed” to the deal and “that is the sense of the House.”
Asking the government not to go ahead with the agreement, he said, “Left parties will not give support, Left will not come on board on this. so, don’t go ahead.”
