PM positive on Indo-US N-deal

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be making a statement in the Rajya Sabha on the Indo-US nuclear deal on Thursday.

He will address some of the concerns of top scientists who have reservations about the deal.

On Wednesday afternoon, a three-hour-long meeting between the Prime Minister and top nuclear scientists R Chidambaram and Anil Kakodkar seems to have left Manmohan Singh very certain of his position on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

It is unlikely that he will let his negotiating hands be tied down in any way.

"The PM has made three statements in Lok Sabha. The Government's intentions are clear," Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said.

PM's meeting with the scientists followed a letter by P K Iyengar, the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and seven other scientists to several MPs listing out why they think the deal is a bad idea.

Their points were straightforward. India should formulate its own nuclear policy without foreign interference, sensitive technological areas should not be subjected to external control but they are willing to accept restrictions on imported technology and they don't want an agreement in perpetuity, especially one that restricts research and development.

"How do we know that we are not going to be ahead of other countries in this area in future? What about the future generation? They should have the independence to push this technology," Iyengar reasons.

Last year was the year of the famous handshake between the US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But clearly, since then the UPA has been pushed into uncharted territory not just by the nuclear scientists but by India's Opposition. Even the Left, an ally of the UPA, opposed the deal.

PMO sources indicate that when the Prime Minister makes a statement in Parliament on Thursday on the nuclear deal, he will clearly say that India is a signatory to the July 18, 2005 deal and that is what India will be sticking to while negotiating the deal.

Any changes to that framework, if passed by US lawmakers, will not be acceptable to India and for the sake of the UPA, the Prime Minister can hope that his increasingly restive allies and the Opposition will be convinced with that.

"The Government must try to accommodate the views of the Left and the other parties concerned. Not only inside Parliament. Even outside, the views and comments of the scientific community should be respected," D Raja, CPI leader, says.

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