New Delhi, July 22
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to call two crucial meetings within the next few days to discuss the 30-page draft agreement on Indo-US nuclear deal that was hammered out by top negotiators from both sides in Washington during July 16-19 talks.
Dr Manmohan Singh will chair a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the country’s apex decision-making body on all strategic issues. The text of the 123 agreement will be discussed threadbare at the CCS meeting. The second important meeting the Prime Minister is likely to convene is with the country’s top nuclear scientists, serving as well as retired.
The Indian scientists community has come out with by and large positive reactions on the 123 agreement. M.R. Srinivisan, member of the Atomic Energy Commission and its former chairman, today reportedly said the nuclear deal would end India’s nuclear isolation.
Besides, the scientists are happy about the reported breakthrough on Indian concerns in the draft agreement about the reprocessing of the spent fuel. There is an increasing recognition that India has to go through the reprocessing mode for energy production, which though somewhat expensive, gives 30 times more energy than conventional nuclear plants.
The Prime Minister is
expected to get an exhaustive briefing from foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon on the 123 deal. The briefing is likely to take place tomorrow. After this briefing only, the government will be convening the two meetings.
The Indo-US nuclear deal has been okayed with give and take from both sides. While India has agreed to some minor concessions, the Americans have accepted new Indian proposal regarding the enrichment of reprocessed fuel wherein India will be creating a dedicated facility for storing spent fuel. The facility will be open to IAEA inspection.
One crucial concession that India is understood to have secured from the USA is that in case of fresh nuclear tests by New Delhi the US President will ensure that the Hyde Act will be rendered inoperative.
The Hyde Act has several red lines as far as India is concerned. Many of the firm undertakings given to India by the US administration were eventually outright negated by the US Congress to uphold what the legislature in Washington saw as US national interest. One such problem area is the Iran clause in the Hyde Act 2006. It urges India not to cooperate with Iran even in the conventional energy sector and flatly denies the multi-path nuclear fuel supply guarantee which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised to Parliament.
Besides, it also includes the mandatory imposition that India need to cooperate and collaborate with the USA on the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) and a host of other international security arrangements such as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The ball is now in the court of the political leadership of the two countries and the next landmark on road to the operationalisation of the nuclear deal will be secretary of state Condoleeza Rice’s visit to India next month.
