NEW DELHI: Welcoming the NSG waiver, former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra has said it would open nuclear commerce with several countries and also strengthen Indo-US ties. Mishra also said BJP had the right to protest but gave his own reasons for supporting the deal. Giving his approval to the deal, Mishra said, "I think it is good for us for two reasons.
One, it opens up nuclear commerce with so many countries which has been prohibited since the last few decades ... Second, it brings India and US close to each other which is what the NDA government was trying to do ... This is one step in that direction." Mishra, who was NSA in the BJP-led NDA government, said India needed supplies from outside to sustain its civilian nuclear program at least for a few more years till it has its own enriched uranium as "they are all underground at the moment".
Expressing hope that after the waiver the 123 Agreement will be approved by the US Congress, Mishra said the deal was good both for India and the US. Mishra, who was once close to BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said he respected the views of the BJP on the nuclear deal. "They have the right to say it and they must exercise that right," he told NDTV. Mishra, however, felt BJP criticism of losing the right to conduct future nuclear tests was misplaced. "My own view is India is unlikely to undertake any tests in future unless some other country undertakes a test.
In that case, the government of the day will have to sit down and have a balance with national security on one side and nuclear civilian cooperation on the other side and it will have to decide," he said. The former NSA maintained that with no other country undertaking any tests "I doubt very much whether the government of today or any other future government will undertake it (nuclear test)".
He said nuclear testing was not prohibited either under the 123 agreement or by the waiver granted today. "Of course you have the consequences ... And those consequences are there even if you don't have the 123 agreement and cooperation with NSG countries," he said.
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