A day before the UPA-Left meet, three senior scientists who once led India’s Nuclear programme, expressed concern that the present nuclear deal might jeopardise India,s indigenous atomic energy strategy.
One of the scientists, P.K.Iyengar, former chiaman of the Atomic Energy Commission, questioned the Government’s hurry to approach the IAEA board for inking the safeguards agreement and its inability to share the text of the agreement with the scientists or the Left. He forcefully defended his position by saying that the Indian scientists have built up the country’s nuclear programme over half a century and everything should not be surrendered in a hurry. According to him, the N-deal is a crucial international agreement and would be implemented perpetually and hence the full text of the agreement must be made available to the experts and their opinion taken before finalizing the deal.
In a joint statement signed by P.K.Iyengar, A.Gopalkrishnan, former head of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and A.N.Prasad, former director of Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, the three scientists said, “ We are strongly of the opinion that the Government should not proceed to seek the IAEA board approval for the current draft safeguards agreement until its implications are debated more fully within the country or at least within the UPA-Left committee.”
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