JYOTI MALHOTRA
New Delhi, August 31, 2007 : Buoyed by the promise of the Congress party veering around to keeping the faith over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today showed no signs of backing down as he dedicated two Tarapur nuclear reactors to the nation.
In fact, the PM in his speech, pretty much set out a schedule for India to follow that would put the 123 agreement on course to taking the next steps at the IAEA, and onwards to a waiver at the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
``We need to pave the way for India to benefit from nuclear commerce without restrictions,’’ the PM said, adding, ``Once these and other steps are taken, India can commence civil nuclear cooperation with all the 45 members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.’’
It almost seemed as if the sound and fury of the last three weeks, his government teetering in the balance as it debated the onslaught of the Left parties over the nuclear deal, was yesterday’s nightmare.
A renewed challenge to the Left parties was also back.
``Our international cooperation… cannot become effective until the Nuclear Suppliers Group adapts its guidelines to enable nuclear commerce with India. The NSG itself has made it clear that they will not do so till the India-specific Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA is finalized,’’ the PM said.
Back in Delhi, senior members of the Congress party admitted that if the committee, set up yesterday to placate the Left parties, did not succeed in its mandate by the end of September, the party was ``ready to face all consequences.’’
One senior party leader went as far as to say that ``setting up the committee did not mean that the Congress was ready to put the nuclear deal on hold.’’
However, Congress leaders also insisted that they had not yet taken the political call necessary for soldiering on alone.
In Tarapur, meanwhile, with National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Atomic Energy chief Anil Kakodkar listening, an unruffled PM spoke about the critical need to harness nuclear energy towards the sustenance of 9 per cent growth.
That is why, he pointed out, even as India pursued the three-stage fuel cycle which would give the country nearly unlimited power, it was imperative to augment national capabilities from ``elsewhere.’’
``We must take decisive steps to remove the uncertainties that result from shortfall in fuel supplies to avoid disruptions in our nuclear power production programme,’’ the PM said.
At the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre training school, he could not resist a jab at the Left’s opposition as he paid full tribute to all those scientists and engineers who had laid the ``building blocks of self-reliance’’ in nuclear science and technology.
Then he chose the one Mahatma Gandhi quote to deliver another verbal blow to all those seeking to deny greater contact with the western word :
``I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”
Increasingly, official sources said, the government was coming around to the view that it could not risk postponing the operationalisation of the nuclear deal.
The only likely concession to the end October-early November IAEA deadline is that Delhi will negotiate the India-specific agreement with the IAEA, but not sign it at this point.
Armed with the frozen text of the India agreement, US diplomats said they would readily call for an emergency plenary session of the NSG by end-November. After the NSG gave its waiver, the US administration would need another month to wrap up documentation and submit it to the US Congress by mid-January 2008.
Since the US Congress usually demanded a 90-day ``cooling period’’ to study all proposed legislation, that would take the ``up-down’’ (yes-no) vote for the 123 agreement into April 2008.
``April would be the absolutely latest deadline, after which the US election would be in full swing,’’ one diplomat said.
ENDS
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