Ahead of the crucial meeting between the ruling UPA and its allies over the India-US nuclear deal, top nuclear scientists asked the government not to go ahead with the IAEA agreement.
NEW DELHI: With the India-US nuclear deal once again occupying center-stage, the anti-pact brigade is out in full force throwing its weight behind those opposed to the landmark agreement.
India’s top scientists, including former Atomic Energy Commission chairman PK Iyengar, retired chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board A Gopalakrishnan and former director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre AN Prasad, issued a statement on Tuesday asking prime minister Manmohan Singh not to rush through the protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Before going in for the safety agreement, the Left parties must be shown the draft and a group of experts brought in to go over it in detail, the scientists said. Shrugging off Manmohan’s recent public statements about energy security and the need to diversify India’s energy mix for the seemingly grim oil future, they said, “…analysts have convincingly shown that additional power will come at a much higher cost per unit of electricity compared to conventional coal or hydro power, which India can generate without any foreign import.”
The scientists spoke about the weakening of India’s nuclear deterrent and New Delhi’s inability to protect and promote homegrown research in nuclear technology. They repeated the fears of the Left parties that India’s foreign policy would be determined by the Americans through the Hyde Act.
“Once the deal is in place, it is clear that India’s commercial nuclear interaction with the US, as well with other countries, will be firmly controlled from Washington via stipulations of the Hyde Act of 2006 enforced through the stranglehold which the US retains on the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” the scientists said.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
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