Manmohan to discuss N-deal with scientists

NEW DELHI: Prime minister Manmohan Singh will meet the country’s top nuclear scientists on Wednesday to discuss areas of concern in the Indo-US nuclear deal. The meeting is significant as it follows a passionate plea by the scientists to allow Parliament to work out the ground rules for the implementation of the agreement.

While terming the deal historic, the scientists, who have been associated with the country’s nuclear programme, had on Monday said that India should ensure the continuity of its nuclear option. They had asked the government not to accede to any restraint in perpetuity.

“India should continue to be able to hold on to her nuclear option as a strategic requirement in the real world that we live in and in the ever-changing complexity of the international political system,” the scientists had said in a joint statement.

But the prime ministerial establishment is hopeful of convincing the scientists that the concerns raised by them are currently being discussed with US interlocutors. The government is in agreement with the view that parts of the legislation, approved by the US House of Representatives, are not in the interests of indigenous research in nuclear science and technology.

The meeting with the scientists is an attempt to allay their fears about the ‘changing goal posts’ of the deal. The scientists had said that US lawmakers have modified, both in letter and spirit, the implementation of the deal.

“It was essential for the parliamentarians to look carefully into some of the issues given in the statement. If the US Congress passes the bill in its present form, the product will become unacceptable to India,” they had said in the statement.

At the same time, the scientists were in agreement with the government’s view that safeguards were necessary where external assistance for nuclear materials or technologies are involved. They had also appreciated the efforts made by the UPA government to get the concurrence of other nations comprising the NSG and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the nuclear deal.

The prime minister will share the policy discussion table with former chairmen of Atomic Energy Commission H N Sethna, M R Srinivasan and P K Iyengar and former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board A Gopalakrishnan.