N-deal: PM to give statement in RS on Thursday

NEW DELHI: With the country's top scientists raising question marks on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday held consultations with top scientists in the nuclear establishment ahead of a discussion in the Parliament on Thursday.

He is expected to send a clear cut message in Parliament that his government will not accept any tampering with the understanding on the agreement reached last year.

At the same time, the PM will also seek to convince critics that he has taken steps to nudge Washington to take into account New Delhi's apprehensions.

The Prime Minister is slated to make a statement in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday and later in the Lok Sabha.

He held about two-hour-long discussions with Anil Kakodkar, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and R Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister regarding the same issue. He also met National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, his Principal Secretary T K A Nair and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.

"This was a formal review meeting," Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma told reporters. The meeting comes two days after the country's eight top nuclear scientists issued a joint statement raising concerns over the present form of the bill in the US Congress saying it was important for Parliament to "work out, and insist on the ground rules for the nuclear deal at this stage itself".