NEW DELHI, July 27: India said on Thursday it would not accept any changes by the US Senate to a controversial US-India nuclear energy agreement, a day after the US House of Representatives approved the deal.
“The US legislative process is still on. There is the Senate bill,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told India’s upper house of parliament after the US House of Representatives cleared the deal by a 359-68 vote.
“If the US legislative process leads to an end product not consistent with what we have committed to, that will be the determining factor of what we do next,” he said.
On Wednesday, Mr Singh said India would “never compromise in a manner which is inconsistent with the provisions of the joint statement” that he and US President George W. Bush had signed in July 2005 to share civil nuclear technology.
Indian lawmakers have voiced concern that the Senate will attach riders to the agreement that would impose more curbs on India’s nuclear programme in addition to those agreed during negotiations.
Mr Singh told lawmakers that he had asked the US administration for assurances that the “goalposts are not tampered with”.
Democratic and Republican leaders in both houses of Congress have expressed strong support for the bill.
Supporters see the deal as a sign of a geopolitical re-alliance following the Cold War, one which allows India to jump-start its quest for alternative energy, as its economy booms. New Delhi relies on imported oil for some 70 percent of its energy needs.
India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said it was concerned the agreement would make the country ‘perpetually dependent’ on the United States for all its nuclear energy initiatives.—Agencies
