Hyde Act will prevail: Nicholas Burns

Repeated exhortations by Dr. Singh and Mr. Pranab Mukherjee to the contrary not withstanding, Mr. Nicholas Burns, the primary negotiator of the Indo-US nuclear deal clarifies -

Burns said, "When this agreement was negotiated, it was fully consistent with the provisions of the Hyde Act. So we have the right to terminate it if India tests." But he said it was highly unlikely that India would conduct a nuclear test.

He also added, "No aspect of this deal recognises India as a nuclear weapons state."

There is more -

He predicted that "a conservative estimate would be that within a generation, 90 percent of India's nuclear establishment would be under IAEA safeguards�none of that would have been possible without this fundamental break with conventional wisdom that President Bush put forward three years ago."

So much for being responsible with our nuclear facilities!

How do the Prime Minister's and the External Affairs Minister's assurance hold in the face of this? Would it not be fair, then to say, that both have not been truthful to the nation? They repeatedly assured us that the Hyde Act would not apply to us, India's strategic interests would not be compromised. But that clearly is untrue.

We were told by Dr. Singh that the deal was in the interest of the nation. But, apparently, the nation he had on his mind was not the as same we thought. It is now clear that the US interests were the primary consideration.

Dr. Singh went to the extent for appealing to the conscience of the opposition, asking the "Bheeshma Pitamaha" Shri Vajpayee to approve it. He never clarifies how could his conscience go ahead with a deal that compromises India's strategic interests. He asked the opponents to listen to their hearts and assured us that the future generations would indeed be thankful for the deal. Without going that far, the present generation is the one that is being compromised by Dr. Manmohan Singh. When the opposition was playing a constructive role, was raising valid concerns and asking relevant questions, it was ridiculed and accused of playing politics, it was accused of being prepared to sign a much less beneficial deal when in power. Clearly Dr. Singh is the one playing politics over the deal.

It should now be clear that the Indo-US nuclear deal is designed to contain India's nuclear weapons programme. It is designed to hoodwink India into submission and deny the status of a nuclear weapons state. This deal is clearly not in India's favour. Dr. Singh must immediately come clean and not proceed with it unless all concerns are addressed. That would be in our national interest.