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New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said that the Congress-led government's move to go ahead with the India-US nuclear deal will undermine the country's strategic autonomy.
In his strongest denunciation of the nuclear deal, BJP vice-president Yashwant Sinha and Rajya Sabha MP Arun Shourie said in a statement that the betrayal of India's interests was reflected in the draft safeguards agreement reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog.
The BJP leaders charged the UPA government with "assisting the US in realising its most important foreign policy objective vis-Ã -vis India in a manner that has undermined India's strategic autonomy while promising illusory energy security".
No rights
Speaking at a press conference, the BJP leaders said that according to the draft safeguards agreement, India would have none of the rights the five established nuclear-weapons states have vis-Ã -vis the Vienna-based IAEA.
The prime minister had assured parliament on August 17 that there was no question of India agreeing to a safeguards pact applicable to non-nuclear-weapon states of the NPT, the statement said.
However, it is clear now that the safeguards pact with the IAEA had compromised the country's interests and the prime minister flouted assurances he gave to parliament on the nuclear deal, it said. "The PM had assured that the agreement would be less onerous and intrusive than the agreements with the non-nuclear weapon states but the text is largely modelled on IAEA safeguards agreements with non-nuclear-weapons states," the statement said.
"The India-IAEA safeguards accord comes with perpetual, legally irrevocable obligations, which India cannot suspend or end, even if the supplier-states cut off supply of fuel and replacement parts.
While the five established nuclear powers have offered only 11 facilities in total - less than one per cent of their total facilities - for IAEA safeguards, India has agreed to place 35 of its facilities under inspection, it added.
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