NEW DELHI: With the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) slated to discuss the revised version of the draft waiver this week in Vienna, Indian leaders and experts are examining it minutely to avoid facing political complexities at home.
After studying the new draft, India is expected to express its opinion in a day or two.
Even though the United States has claimed that a revised draft meets the concerns of skeptical nations and also the red lines drawn by India seeking clean and unconditional NSG exemption, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is studying it separately.
India is understood to be ready only for “minimal changes” and is deliberating whether the revised draft’s language and semantics “can be sold” to people of the country without any problems, the source said.
India was handed the revised version of the draft waiver on Thursday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed it on Saturday with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and senior colleagues. Among others who discussed the issue were External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Gandhi. In addition to amendments in the revised version, the leaders also deliberated what their next step would be if developments in Vienna do not favor India, sources said.
Singh earlier discussed the draft with Mukherjee, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar.
The past few days since India received the draft have been marked by Mukherjee, Narayanan and Kakodkar saying emphatically that New Delhi is in favor of only a “clean” and “unconditional” waiver from NSG.
“We have made it quite clear that we are interested in a clean waiver from the NSG. We have presented our case. We have made our position clear to all,” Mukherjee said on Friday. The same day, Kakodkar said: “I expect a clean waiver without any preconditions.”
Elaborating on India’s stand, Narayanan emphatically said on Saturday that India would not accept the NSG-waiver, if the red lines set by it were crossed.
