Jaya urges Centre for committee to study Nuke pact

Chennai, Aug 7: Dubbing the Indo-US Nuke pact as a ''master-slave charter'' and not an agreement between two countries of equal staus, AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa today urged the Centre to constitute a committee comprising MPs and Scientists to examine various clauses of the agreement.

Totally opposing the nuclear agreement, which she said would not benefit India, Ms Jayalalithaa, in a statement here, accused the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, a conglomeration of 22 parties, of holding contradictory views and acting according to the dictates of foreign masters.

Stating that it had aboslutely no moral right to sign the Nuclear agreement, she urged the Union Government to take further action only after the committee submitted its findings.

She said since India had already moved forward in the field of nuclear energy, the research capacity of Indian scientists would be eroded by this agreement and India would become a consumer nation thwarting its research psyche.

''Where is the need to stop our research effort to buy a product which is already with us. This should be considered in depth,'' she said and asked why the US should be allowed to inspect the nuclear plants in India.

''Will America permit India to inspect its nuclear plant,'' she asked and described the deal as a ''master-slave charter'' and not an agreement between two countries of equal staus.

Reiterating that any agreement with any other nation should have the approval of two-third of the MPs of both the Houses of Parliament, Jayalalithaa said the Indian constitution had to amended accordingly. At a time when this demand was gaining ground in the country, the Union Government was funtioning with the idea that no debate on this subject should be allowed in Parliament and that no such debate should ever be permitted in future.

She said there could be no second opinion that there were more clauses in the agreement, unveiled on August one, that worked against India's interests rather than favouring India.

Recalling that former Prime Ministers held a clear view that Atomic energy department should be independent in its functioning and also fully self-reliant to make India emerge as a super power in nuclear energy, she said the present government at the Centre was ''bent on burying all these principles fathoms deep and is doing all that is possible against India's sovereignty.'' Claiming that there were deleterious clauses in the deal that worked against India's sovereignty, she said the research centres, atomic power processing and atomic power plants and the disposal of atomic waste after use would come under the supervisory control of the US as well as the powers of inspections and gathering of informaton pertaining to India's nuclear capability.

''Thus America has positioned itself as a ''Master'' ordering India to do this, adopt this method, don't do that etc,'' she said and described as ''very lame and feeble excuse,'' the Centre's reason that raw material for atomic plants in India was scarce.

The reason given by the Centre was not convincing and the Scientists too have not accepted this and plaintly rejected it, she pointed out.

Ms Jayalalithaa said the agreement could not be considered as one between two countries with equal rights and status, as it contained clauses that enabled US to intervene in India's future atomic research, raw material research and future production of atomic weaponry. Stating that there should not be any interference in matters relating to its civilian set-up and military establishment, she said the nuke deal, not only interferes with regard to production of atom bombs for India's military purposes, but also with regard to its nuclear power plants for civilian use.

''At every stage there is a sort of supervisory control from one side,'' she added.

Alleging that the agreement had secret clauses and an overweening jugglery of words, she said there were also some conditions which dictate how India should deal with other countries vis-a-vis nuclear power.

''The US had already shattered Iraq because of its nuclear power programme and North Korea is being threatened day in and day out.

US is also engaged in secret preliminary moves for invading Iran.

In this situation, why should India, submit, of its own volition to America's overlordship thereby inviting danger for India itself,'' she added saying that there was no answer from the Centre for this.

UNI