Date:13/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/13/stories/2006121315751400.htm

National

Sethna still sceptical

Special Correspondent

"India should be guided by the July 2005 joint statement that spelt out the deal"

MUMBAI: The former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, H.N. Sethna, continues to be sceptical about the India-United States nuclear deal despite the U.S. Act and advises the Union Government to "stick to its guns."

Dr. Sethna said here on Tuesday that the country did need uranium and money to enhance its nuclear power programme "but what happens if they go back?" The doyen of the Indian atomic agenda referred to the Indian experience in Tarapur where the Americans had stopped the supply of enriched uranium. He was talking to reporters at his residence.

He said no matter what provisions the Bill contained, India should be guided by the Manmohan Singh-Bush joint statement of 18 July 2005 that had spelt out the nuclear deal. He said Dr. Manmohan Singh was a man of great ability and would like to wait for his word on the further course of the deal. "I am sure that he will never do anything that can harm the country."

He regretted that the full ramifications of the Bill passed by the American legislature were not fully appreciated by different departments, particularly the foreign office. The Ministry of External Affairs "is too shallow, they do not do any homework." The MEA should have called young experts from the Department of Atomic Energy, Indian Space Research Organisation and the armed forces, he said, but they did not do that.