'N-deal should be okayed by parliament'

NEW DELHI: The India-US civil nuclear energy cooperation deal must be ratified by parliament, politicians and experts demanded here on Saturday  hours after negotiators from the two sides finalised an agreement to implement the historic initiative.

The fate of the country was left "in the hands of two bureaucrats, (National Security Advisor) M.K. Narayanan and (Foreign Secretary) Shivshankar Menon. That is because the executive has unlimited powers in this country," senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former central minister Murli Manohar Joshi said.

He was addressing a seminar on Treaty Making Powers of Government: Strategic Concerns for Our Economy, organised by the National Working Group on Patent Laws of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

"Once this deal is concluded we are bound by it and constrained in making nuclear weapons. Pakistan, a rogue state, is not (constrained) since it has not concluded the treaty, nor is Israel nor North Korea," Joshi said.

His remarks came soon after India and the US finalised an agreement to implement the deal. A joint press statement issued in Washington Friday said the two sides "are pleased with the substantial progress made on the outstanding issues in the 123 agreement. We will now refer the issue to our governments for final review."

However, the opposition at home to the path-breaking deal that will open the doors of commerce in nuclear energy for India after three decades showed no signs of abetting.

Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary D. Raja said, "Since neo-liberalisation paradigm of development emerged in the early 1990s, there is a growing concern specially in the Left and the CPI about the growing influence of the US on our foreign policy, our trade, our agriculture and economy - and in fact our sovereignty."

Raja, whose party provided outside support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, favoured parliamentary ratification of all international treaties in any way affecting the sovereignty of the nation.

He said, "There must be a constitutional provision to ensure that international treaties are ratified by parliament".

He added that, in spite of such a provision, "if the government goes ahead and signs the treaty, what do we do? At the political level this is a challenge."

Noted Supreme Court lawyer and constitution expert Rajeev Dhawan said, "We are confronted with the American empire. It has tried to consolidate its hold on our economy and every other aspect for last 25 years. These powers have multiplied since the world became unipolar."

Reading out from the Hyde Act, relating the India-US nuclear deal and passed by the US Congress and Senate, he pointed out that the law clearly directs India "must demonstrate responsible behaviour towards nuclear non-proliferation" and wondered: "You are telling a sovereign nation you will henceforth follow our policy."

Former Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) chairman A. Gopalakrishnan pointed out how the US system makes their executive fully accountable to the legislature and therefore nothing that is not endorsed by the US Congress and Senate can be implemented, unlike the case of India where the government is not bound to come to parliament for ratification.