Date:03/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/03/stories/2008080360660800.htm

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Hyde Act will determine path of deal: CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday said the safeguards agreement approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed that the Hyde Act of the U.S. would determine the path of the India-US nuclear deal through the various stages.

“The provisions of the Hyde Act and not the assurances made by the Indian Prime Minister in Parliament are shaping the course of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal through the various stages,” the Polit Bureau of the party said in a statement here.

It said the IAEA-endorsed agreement made it clear that 14 Indian civilian nuclear facilities would come under perpetual IAEA safeguards from 2009.

“That the interpretation of the Indian Government regarding the “corrective measures” mentioned in the Preamble of the Safeguards Agreement providing for a check against disruption of fuel supplies, does not hold, has been made clear by the IAEA,” the Polit Bureau said.

Termination norms

Quoting the introductory statement of the IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei that the termination provisions contained in the agreement were the same as for other 66-type agreements, it said the safeguards agreement can only be terminated under the standard termination conditions contained in Articles 29 and 32 of the Agreement.

The CPI(M) Polit Bureau said that it implied that “nuclear facilities can be withdrawn from safeguards only after these facilities are no longer usable for any nuclear activity.”

“This belies the Prime Minister’s assurance in Parliament that India’s civilian nuclear facilities would be put under perpetual IAEA safeguards only under the strictly reciprocal condition of uninterrupted fuel supply guarantees,” it said.

The Polit Bureau said that neither “does the 123 agreement with the U.S. provide any such fuel supply guarantee nor can the IAEA ensure uninterrupted fuel supply since it is only a monitoring agency.”

Other Left parties have already attacked the agreement, saying it neither recognised India’s nuclear weapon status nor did it protect its interests on uninterrupted fuel supply.

The Left parties, which withdrew support to the Congress-led UPA government last month on the issue of the nuclear deal, have been highly critical of the Hyde Act which, they claim, would affect India’s sovereignty and strategic autonomy.