New Delhi: Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday alleged that the UPA government was "giving more and more concessions" to the US on the nuclear deal.
Vajpayee said he had expressed reservations about the deal and many of his fears have "unfortunately" come true. He demanded that India, like China, should try to get an all-time waiver from Washington regarding its nuclear programme.
Vajpayee said that according to the Waiver Authority Bill, which has been introduced in the US Congress, Washington would grant a waiver to India only if it meets seven conditions in the bill.
"The course of action of the India government in future will thus be determined not by laws passed by the Parliament of India or by international covenants to which we are party, but by the law framed by the US Congress," he said.
Vajpayee claimed the bill, when passed, "will convert a voluntary moratorium on further tests by India into a legally binding commitment for all times to come."
"This position is not acceptable" and India should retain the right to conduct nuclear tests if any country were to do so. He claimed India's obligations under the bill are far more stringent than those under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. When the US amended its Atomic Energy Act for China, Beijing was granted an all-time waiver.
But for India the waiver is temporary, he said. The US President will determine from time to time whether India is complying with conditions in the Act. "This position is also unacceptable," he said.
"It is crystal clear that in every round of negotiations with the US, India has ended up giving more and more concessions. The least the Government of India should do is to insist that there should be an all-time waiver," he said.
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