IndiaPost.com - India not bound by Hyde Act, right to test intact: Govt

NEW DELHI: As the Opposition demand for voting in Parliament on the Indo-US nuclear deal was rejected, the Government sought to allay apprehensions on the Hyde Act saying India was not bound by it.

"I have quoted President George Bush verbatim, and not his or the White House's Under Secretary, that some provisions are advisory in nature and cannot affect the executive branch of the US Administration", External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Lok Sabha.

He was responding to Leader of Opposition L K Advani's charge that government was "misleading" the House by saying that India would not be bound by the Henry Hyde Act. Similar apprehensions were voiced by other Opposition as also Left party members while participating in an impromptu discussion on the issue.

Mukherjee said this was also reflected in the Joint Statement of July 2005 and another one in 2006. "Let the House discuss it and it will be known who is right and who is wrong," he said.

India has the right to test: Kakodkar

Meanwhile, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar told reporters in Bangalore that India has the sovereign right to conduct a nuclear test and the only restraint in this regard is the country's voluntary unilateral moratorium on testing, a top scientist said amidst the political uproar over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

"The agreement doesn't say anything about tests. There is no prohibition on tests in the agreement," he said. "In the text there is a non-hindrance clause. There is no hindrance to activity outside the cooperation," Kakodkar, who is also secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy, said while referring to strategic nuclear activity.

"There is no question of hindrance from outside on domestic activities. There is no specific mention of tests in the draft part." Asked whether there could be a cessation of the pact with the US if India conducted a nuclear test, he said: "There is a provision for cessation and termination. To make sure that cessation and termination does not create difficulties in ...running the program, there are a series of steps...Which have been spelt out in the agreement."

There is a need for consultations to spell out the reasons and security concerns for any possible test, he indicated. "There is also a provision for right to return (nuclear equipment)," he said. Despite all these provisions, the cooperation "cannot be stopped abruptly".

"It has to go through a process," he pointed out. Referring to the supply of nuclear resources being affected by the cancellation of the deal, Kakodkar noted there is a provision for creating a strategic stockpile to last the lifetime of a reactor.

The stockpile can come from various sources, both US and non-US, he said. In the termination clause, there is a statement on fuel supply and building of stockpile continuation and there can be "no derogation on it", he remarked.