| "The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) will scrutinise the deal on Thursday and then it will be discussed by the full Cabinet. As we have to face a hostile Parliament, the entire government will be pressed into service to defend the agreement," a top government sources said. |
| Although the full contours of the deal are yet to be made public, the manner in which the agreed text has been drafted suggests that the most contentious issues have been resolved or circumvented. |
| India's self-declared moratorium on testing its nuclear weapon in the future, government suggests, has been sufficient to overcome US proliferation fears. But if India decides to test, it will be free to arrange the supply of fissile materials from other sources. |
| Government sources explained that the wording of commitments by India to not increase weapons grade fissile material stocks in unsafeguarded nuclear facilities; ensuring that the safeguards agreement reached with the IAEA applies to all exported or re-exported nuclear materials and equipment; and that fuel supplies made to India are commensurate with "reasonable reactor-operating requirements", have all been modified. |
| The issue is how this is going to be conveyed to the Left parties for their endorsement. The CPI(M) has already said it will accept no compromise on the assurances given by the PM in Parliament a year ago. |
| It has also said it will not allow India to be compromised in any way by the Hyde Act that draws India into jointly participating with the US in a programme involving the US National Nuclear Security Administration to further nuclear non-proliferation goals. |
| The BJP has said the deal imposes "rigorous" obligations on India, fails to guarantee an uninterrupted supply of nuclear fuel for India's civilian reactors, and makes Delhi's nuclear weapons programme "subject to intrusive US scrutiny." The party claims India will also be effectively banned from future nuclear tests. |
Top Section
Explore Business Standard