PM, Pranab reject N-deal criticism

BJP walks out before external affairs minister’s reply in LS

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday the India-US nuclear deal will not take away India’s right to test nukes even as external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee put up a spirited defence of the nuke deal, trashing BJP and Left charges that India had surrendered its sovereignty by signing the 123 Agreement.

“There is nothing in the agreement that prevents us from carrying out tests,” the Prime Minister said interrupting leader of opposition LK Advani during a debate on the nuke deal in the Lok Sabha (LS) under rule 193, which does not entail voting.

Denying that his government had in any way diluted the Indian stand on nuclear weapons taken by the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, he said, “Our government has committed nothing more on nuclear tests than what your government did. There is nothing in this agreement that prevents India from exercising the right to tests.” 

Before Mukherjee replied at the end of a five-and-a-half-hour debate involving 32 speakers, the NDA staged a walkout as their demand that the PM should reply went unheeded.

Mukherjee rejected the demand of the CPI(M) and the BJP to take the debate as “sense of the House”. He said, “Unless the process is complete, where is the question of taking the sense of the House. I will come to Parliament at every stage and inform you.”

That the debate is heading for a washout was visible was evident from the beginning. At 2 pm when the discussion began, one-third members were present but the number started dwindling thereafter. By 4.30 pm, one could count a total of 62 MPs in a House of 544. Many Left members were also missing.

Unlike on the earlier occasion, the Left did not walk out. Neither did it launch a scathing attack on the government. CPI(M) member Roopchand Pal mostly targeted the BJP and its double standards, raising doubts if there was an understanding between the Left and the government not to raise the pitch over the contentious deal.

Roopchand ultimately told the government it can go to the IAEA, but it should promise uninterrupted fuel supply.

Apart from the Prime Minister and leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, who replied to the discussion, the only two good speakers were Advani and Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress. Most parties fielded second-rung members to speak on the deal. The Left was represented by low-key members.

The DMK and the RJD, which had at one time seemed to oppose the deal at the behest of the CPI(M), vociferously supported the agreement. Even the Samajwadi Party did not make a scathing attack on the government.