New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will make one more attempt to gather momentum and support over Indo-US deal today in Parliament. He would deliver a speech today on this issue.

Earlier, on Wednesday Lok Sabha debated the issue during which the government asserted that India's right to conduct nuclear tests in future has not been forfeited and said the agreement is a "passport" to similar cooperation with other countries.

He said the deal does not bar India from carrying out nuclear tests in future. "If a necessity for carrying out a nuclear test arises in future, there is nothing in the agreement which prevents us from exercising the sovereignty," he said in a brief intervention during a day-long debate in the Lok Sabha House.

While the Leader of the Opposition L K Advani said the deal in its present form is unacceptable to the nation and NDA, if voted back to power, would renegotiate the agreement for removal of "adverse" provisions in it. In case, that cannot be done, the NDA would reject the deal, he said but made it clear that BJP was not opposed to strategic relationship with the US. Describing the deal as a "surrender" to the USA, government ally CPI(M) it "has a serious bearing" on the country.

 

Source : Agencies