No deviation from July 18, 2005 deal acceptable: Dr Rao

Bangalore, Aug 16 (UNI) Renowned scientist and Atomic Energy Commission member Prof C N R Rao today said the country cannot accept any deviation from the July 18, 2005 joint declaration on the Indo-US deal for cooperation in civil nuclear energy.

''We cannot satisfy all... More discussions will have to be held in this regard. There is no need to speak about it today as the Prime Minister is going to make a statement in Parliament tomorrow.

We do not want any deviation from the July declaration. The Prime Minister also wants the same thing. We will wait and see,'' he told UNI here.

Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a two-hour meeting with top nuclear scientists and security experts in New Delhi and is likely to assure the Rajya Sabha tomorrow that India would not allow the United States to ''shift the goal posts''.

Dr Singh had convened the meeting in the wake of eight top nuclear scientists, including three former AEC Chairmen, expressing concern over the US Congress' reported move to deviate from the nuclear deal and urging Parliament to set the ''ground rules'' for the implementation of the agreement on the basis of reciprocity.

Among those present in the meeting were Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Dr Anil Kakodkar, Pricipal Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr R Chidambaram, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.

On Monday, in a joint appeal issued to the parliamentarians, the eight prominent 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, objecting to the infringement of indigenous research and development, perpetual safeguards and Parliament's right to decide the basic principles on which the deal should be implemented.

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