Secret correspondence from US President George Bush, in which he has told the US Congress that the US will not sell sensitive nuclear technologies to India and would immediately terminate nuclear trade if New Delhi conducts a nuclear test, was unveiled by Howard L Berman, Democrat member of the House of Representatives from California who is also the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman.
A spokesperson for Berman briefed The Washington Post on the matter, which carried a report today. The facts are contained in the US Administration’s 26-page reply to questions raised by Congress on the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement. The clarifications were sent to Berman’s predecessor, the late Tom Lantos, on January 16 this year.
The revelation, coming just before the NSG meeting in Vienna tomorrow, sent the Indian government into a tizzy, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holding a meeting of senior colleagues to discuss the issue. Singh deliberated on the issue with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Adviser M K Narayanan in the context of the crucial meeting in Vienna starting tomorrow.
Later, the PM and the foreign minister also telephoned some NSG members opposing the India-specific waiver. “I have read the statement. But I will not comment,” said Mukherjee when asked by reporters for his comments on the controversial disclosure by the Bush Administration.
Top sources in the government admitted that it was indeed embarrassing for the government even as there was nothing new in the US stand. “The news report does not reflect any change of stand of the US administration as far as the nuclear deal is concerned. But it has come out just before the NSG meeting in Vienna. This is certainly embarrassing,” said a top official.
The sources claimed that the correspondence means nothing new as these prescriptive measures are already there in the Hyde Act. They also refused to attach much importance to the secrecy of the correspondence: “If the PM sends a letter to the Lok Sabha secretariat, is it necessary that we have to make it public?”
Senior scientists in the Indian Atomic Energy Commission acknowledged that coming as it did a day before the NSG meeting, the revelation was “embarrassing” for India.
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However, US Ambassador to India David C Mulford said the letter “contains no new conditions and there is no data in this letter which has not already been shared in an open and transparent way with members of the Congress and with the Government of India”.
Berman’s revelations indicate that US conditions for nuclear trade with India are tougher than what the US is asking various countries, including conscientious objectors like Japan, Norway and New Zealand, to accept on India's behalf.
They also suggest that there is some variance between India’s position — that it has accepted a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing — and the US position — that if India tests, it would once again become the nuclear pariah that it was following the last round of nuclear tests.
To pointed objections by both the Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the government has consistently held that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal does not in any way, curtail India’s sovereign right to conduct nuclear tests in the future. In August 2007, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament: “The agreement does not in any way affect India’s right to undertake future nuclear tests, if it is necessary.”
The State Department’s letter to Lantos, quoted by The Post, however, says the US would help India deal only with “disruptions in supply to India that may result through no fault of its own”, such as a trade war or market disruptions.
“The fuel supply assurances are not, however, meant to insulate India against the consequences of a nuclear explosive test or a violation of non-proliferation commitments,” the letter said.
The letter makes clear that terminating co-operation could be immediate and is within US discretion, and that the supply assurances made by the US are not legally binding but simply a commitment made by Bush.
The US government has no plans to seek to amend the deal to allow sensitive transfers, the letter adds.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) came down heavily on the PM once again. Its politburo statement said: “The Left parties had warned the UPA government about these provisions in the notes submitted to the UPA-Left Co-ordination Committee, which have now been vindicated by this disclosure.
All commitments of the PM in Parliament have been violated. The Manmohan Singh government stands thoroughly exposed before the country for compromising India’s vital security interests. Proceeding with this deal will mortgage India’s sovereignty and make India’s civilian nuclear programme vulnerable to US blackmail for the next 40 years”.
In its reaction, the BJP said the UPA government stood “completely exposed” on the nuclear deal.
The Congress party, however, chose to play down “disclosures” on the deal as “internal communication” between the US administration and the legislature. “What the US administration or the US President communicates with the US Congress or a member of the US Congress is entirely their problem,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said.