Wednesday, 15 August, 2007

The Age

INDIA'S Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has committed his nation to conducting nuclear tests and said its nuclear weapons program would remain untouched under a controversial nuclear energy deal with the US.

Mr Singh defended the historic agreement in a speech in Parliament, even as Opposition members stormed the floor of the chamber shouting: "Take back the nuclear deal!"

The Prime Minister assured MPs that India's sovereignty had not been compromised by the nuclear deal and that many of the country's concerns had been addressed during earlier negotiations with the US.

Known as the "1-2-3 agreement", the nuclear deal has been bitterly opposed by parties inside and outside Mr Singh's coalition Government. Since the text of the deal was released earlier this month, it has been the source of a war of words between Mr Singh and a bloc of coalition partners — including communists and other leftist parties — that provide crucial support to the Government and are suspicious of closer US ties.

The bloc has called for a renegotiation of the deal and for a constitutional amendment that would require a parliamentary nod to such international agreements in the future.

The statement came on the eve of Mr Singh unfurling the national flag from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort to a 21-gun salute today, and then addressing the nation in a speech expected to laud six decades of progress since independence from Britain.

Announced in July 2005, the nuclear deal has been controversial both in the US and India.

It has been criticised in the United States because it offers nuclear fuel and technology to a country that has not signed any international non-proliferation treaties; it has been criticised in India by MPs and others who see it as giving the US undue influence over a strategic national asset.

The future of the deal is not in jeopardy because it does not require the approval of Parliament. Still, Mr Singh has reacted defiantly to the criticism, saying in an interview published on Saturday in the Kolkata-based Telegraph newspaper: "It is an honourable deal; the cabinet has approved it; we cannot go back on it. I told them (MPs) to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support, so be it."

In his speech, Mr Singh said that the deal protected India's right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel that originated in the US. "It would also include development of a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of our reactors," he said.

India conducted a nuclear test in 1998 under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also initiated the strategic partnership dialogue with the US.

Although members of the BJP have criticised the deal, analysts have said that their opposition is merely tactical.

Pakistan celebrated the 60th anniversary of independence yesterday with prayers and a national minute of silence, low-key festivities for a country in the grip of political and religious turmoil.