Decode this formulation, and what it means is that the UPA Government has rushed into a deal that grants the United States the right to slap us if we exercised our sovereign right.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesmen have continued to maintain that, as far as India is concerned, the Hyde Act does not apply to us and the 123 Agreement, “in which there is no bar on nuclear testing”, is all that matters. If the promise of “Nuclear Bijlee for All” was one self-serving myth propagated by the Congress leadership, the other fib is its contention that India will continue to have the unfettered right to test. The latter claim, along with several other commitments the Prime Minister has given from time to time in Parliament, has been punctured once again by a bombshell report in The Washington Post earlier this week. The report reveals the contents of a confidential January 2008 letter from the Bush administration to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives.

The letter, whose existence was certainly known to Singh and his colleagues, leaves no one in any doubt that (a) in the event of a new nuclear test by India, America would abrogate the 123 Agreement; (b) the US does not guarantee perpetual fuel supply or lifetime stock of nuclear fuel to India; and (c) there would be no transfer of sensitive dual-use nuclear technology such as reprocessing technology. Tellingly, the letter also makes it clear that the Bush administration does not consider the 123 Agreement as the only document governing nuclear cooperation with India. Indeed, its actions would also be dictated by the provisions of the Atomic Energy Act and the Hyde Act, which explicitly prohibit further nuclear tests by India. Obviously, the Congress leadership is deluding itself and deceiving the Indian public by claiming that the US Government has entered into an international treaty with India that negates the provisions of America’s own laws. Gullibility too must have its limits.

... contd.