Thursday, April 6 2006 14:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Accusing the UPA Government of giving more and more concessions to the US on the nuclear deal, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today (Apr 6, 2006) demanded that India should try to get an all time waiver from Washington as was the case with China.

As US Congress prepared to take up a bill to amend laws to have full civil nuclear energy cooperation with India under the deal, Vajpayee said the proposed legislation when passed "Will convert a voluntary moratorium on further tests by India into a legally binding commitment for all times to come".

Asserting that this position is not acceptable he said that India should retain the right to conduct the nuclear tests if any country, such as China and Pakistan, were to do so.

Contending that the obligations under the bill are far more stringent than those under the CTBT, Vajpayee said "What is more shocking is the fact that if the President of US determines that India has detonated a nuclear explosive device after its (bill) enactment such waiver shall be terminated".

When the Atomic Energy Act of the US was amended for China, Beijing was granted waiver in perpetuity. In case of India, it would be periodic. The President will have to determine from time to time whether India is in compliance with the conditionality built into the Act.

"This position is also unacceptable," he said.

"It is crystal clear that in every round of negotiations with the US, India has ended up giving more and more concessions.The least the Government of India should do is to insist that there should be an all-time waiver by the US President as in the case of China," he said in a statement.

The NDA chairman said he had expressed reservations about the Indo-US Nuclear deal and many of his fears have 'unfortunately come true as the negotiations on this deal progressed.

The latest is the draft of the Waiver Authority Bill introduced in the US Congress, Vajpayee said, adding according to this Bill, the waiver will be granted by the Washington when India meets its seven conditions which were mentioned in the bill.

"The course of action of the Government of India, in future will thus be determined not by laws passed by the Parliament of India or by international covenants to which we are party, but by the law framed by the US Congress," he said.

Vajpayee said that while CTBT cannot come into force until forty odd countries, including the US itself and China and Pakistan, adhere to it.

He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's logic that if the US or the Nuclear Supplier Group do not keep their commitments, India would have the option to walk out of its commitments under the deal, is 'seriously flawed'.

Besides, he said that Nation has not been taken into confidence so far about the cost of separation of India's nuclear facilities between Civilian and Military. According to reliable sources, it is going to be very heavy. Will this not be wasted expenditure, he argued.

The former Prime Minister said since India is planning to set up power plants at heavy costs, what would happen to that investment if fuel supplies for them were to be stopped due to an adverse determination by the US President.

"The nation shall pay a heavy price in future by closing its options on the size of its credible minimum nuclear deterent. Our nuclear armed neighbours shall face no such constraints," the NDA chairman said.