The BJP alleged, the draft takes away what was provided even in the 123 Agreement.
NEW DELHI: Making a mockery of the assurances made repeatedly by prime minister Manmohan Singh, the draft nuclear safeguards agreement between India and the IAEA compromises India’s interests and only serves the US aim of bringing India into the non-proliferation regime, BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie said here in a joint statement on Monday.
Further, the BJP alleged, the draft takes away what was provided even in the 123 Agreement. The 123 Agreement said an India-specific safeguards pact will be negotiated between India and the IAEA providing for safeguards against withdrawal of nuclear material from civilian use at any time “as well as providing for corrective measures that India may take to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear reactors.”
The IAEA draft pact only says the purpose of safeguards is to guard against the withdrawal of safeguarded nuclear material from civilian use at any time. Also, the reference to “corrective measures” appears only in the preamble, and not in operative part of the agreement.
Saying the BJP was “sadder than ever before” that a person occupying the prime minister’s chair gives assurances to parliament and those assurances are torn to shreds in the agreement, they listed these promises.
- The PM told the Lok Sabha on July 29, 2005 that: “We shall undertake the same responsibilities and obligations as…the US; we expect the same rights and benefits as the US; and India will never accept discrimination.”
The agreement, however, does not recognise India as a nuclear weapons state like the US, Russia, Britain, France and China.
- The PM assured the agreement would be “India-specific” and less onerous and intrusive than the agreements with the non-nuclear weapon states. He assured parliament on August 17, 2006: “As a country with nuclear weapons, there is no question of India agreeing to a safeguards agreement or additional protocol applicable to non-nuclear-weapon states of the NPT”.
s_rajesh@dnaindia.net
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