India should hold on to its nuclear option: nuclear scientists

Mumbai, Aug 14: Coming down heavily on the Indo-US nuclear agreement, pioneers of India's nuclear energy programme today appealed to Parliamentarians to ensure that India continues to hold on to its nuclear option, which they termed a ''strategic requirement in the real world that we live in, and in the ever-changing complexity of international political system.'' In a joint appeal issued to the parliamentarian even as the Indo-US nuclear deal is all set to figure in Parliament for discussion, the scientists -- former Atomic Energy Commission chairmen Dr H N Sethna, Dr M R Srinivasan, and Dr P K Iyengar, former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board Chairman Dr A Gopalakrishnan, Nuclear Power Corporation's former Managing Director Dr S L Kati, its former Chairman&Managing Director Dr Y S R Prasad, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre's former Director Dr A N Prasad and Dr Placid Rodriguez, a former Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research -- said they ''cannot accede to any restraint in perpetuity on our freedom of action.

''We have not done this for the last 40 years after nuclear proliferation treaty (NPT) came into being, and there is no reason why we should succumb to this now. Universal nuclear disarmament must be our ultimate aim, and until we see the light at the end of the tunnel on this important issue, we cannot accept any agreement in perpetuity,'' they said, in their open letter.

Welcoming the July 18 agreemnt signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Bush, they however, charged the lawmakers of the US Congress with having ''modified, both in letter and spirit, the implementation of such an agreement.''

Tering it ''significant'' that ''the most advanced country in nuclear science and technology has come forward to accept us into the international nuclear community, by the historic document signed by our Prime Minister with President Bush on July 18, 2005,'' they said that the basic principles for cooperation were well laid out in this bilateral understanding and the Prime Minister has appraised our Parliament of this.

''However, the lawmakers of the US Congress have modified, both in letter and spirit, the implementation of such an agreement,'' the letter said, adding that at this juncture, it was essential that they insisted on India being able to ''continue to be able to hold on to her nuclear option as a strategic requirement in the real world that we live in, and in the ever-changing complexity of the international political system,'' thus forbearing from acceding to ''any restraint in perpetuity on our freedom of action.'' They also noted that after 1974, when the major powers discontinued cooperation with India, the country had built up its capability in many sensitive technological areas, ''which need not and should not now be subjected to external control.'' ''Safeguards are understandable where external assistance for nuclear materials or technologies are involved. We have agreed to this before, and we can continue to agree to this in the future too, but strictly restricted to those facilities and materials imported from external sources,'' they said.

The scientists claimed that the Indo-US deal, ''in the form approved by the US House of Representatives,'' infringed on the country's independence for carrying out indigenous research and development (R&D) in nuclear science&technology. ''Our R&D should not be hampered by external supervision or control, or by the need to satisfy any international body. Research and technology development are the sovereign rights of any nation.

This is especially true when they concern strategic national defence and energy self-sufficiency,'' they said.

They also noted that while the sequence of actions to implement the cooperation could be left for discussion between the two governments, ''the basic principles on which such actions will rest is the right of Parliament and the people to decide.'' ''The Prime Minister has already taken up with President Bush the issue of the new clauses recommended by the US House of Representatives. If the US Congress, in its wisdom, passes the bill in its present form, the ''product'' will become unacceptable to India, and, diplomatically, it will be very difficult to change it later. Hence it is important for our Parliament to work out, and insist on, the ground rules for the nuclear deal, at this stage itself,'' they said.

The scientists requested parliamentarians ''to discuss this deal and arrive at a unanimous decision, recognising the fundamental facts of India's indigenous nuclear science&technology achievements to date, the efforts made to overcome the unfair restrictions placed on us and the imaginative policies and planning enunciated and followed in the years after Independence.'' ''The nation, at this critical juncture, depends on its representatives in Parliament to ensure that decisions taken today do not inhibit our future ability to develop and pursue nuclear technologies for the benefit of the nation,'' the letter said.

UNI