The government also needs to clarify its thinking on the Additional Protocol before entering into the safeguards agreement. The government had pledged to secure an unqualified right to reprocess spent-fuel and even termed India’s right to reprocess “non-negotiable.” But the 123 Agreement has an “empty theoretical right” to reprocess. The actual permission will come after years, when a dedicated state-of-the art reprocessing plant is built anew to treat foreign fuel, along with a host of allied facilities. Similarly, there are many other key safeguards-related issues which have been unaddressed in the draft safeguards agreement and none had been handled adequately or in an acceptable manner. “We therefore appeal to the Members of the Lok Sabha to direct the government not to proceed further with the current safeguards agreement, and ask the Prime Minister to initiate wide-ranging and structured deliberations on the deal to develop a broad consensus among political parties,” they said.
