While all parties stuck to their public statements on the deal, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh aligned his position close to the Left’s after his party had gone soft in its opposition during the discussion in Lok Sabha last week.

While the government defended the deal on the grounds that it was necessary to meet India’s growing energy requirements and was the “best possible deal,” the BJP, Left and UNPA accused the government of “surrendering to the US” and “ignoring the opposition of the majority.”

Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie led the BJP offensive, arguing that the UPA government was “misleading” the nation on all key issues, including the right to reprocess fuel, energy security and ending the country’s nuclear apartheid.

“I declare that if we come to power, which we will, we will re-negotiate the deal,” Sinha said. “All the scientists whom I have spoken to have told me that the nuclear isolation has proved to be a boon for India,” he said, asking the government to stop this “cry over ending apartheid.”

Intervening, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dismissed as “false” Sinha’s charge that India came under US pressure and did not sign agreements with Russia on the Koodankulam reactors. Singh said the agreement could not be concluded because the government was yet to work out issues with the IAEA and Nuclear Suppliers Group.

“It has always been understood that the agreements for four additional reactors (for Koodankulam atomic power project) could be signed only after India got the approval from IAEA for India-specific safeguards and work out with the NSG issues that are under discussion,” he said.

“So the impression that you are giving is false propaganda inside and outside which is not correct,” he told Sinha.

UPA allies DMK and NCP came out in strong support of the government position with DMK chief Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi making her maiden speech.

CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, who opened the discussion, went to lengths to explain why the Left agreed with the government going to the IAEA for safeguard talks. Maintaining that the government should not go ahead with the deal, he said the IAEA talks permission was to sort out certain issues like “interrupted fuel supply and full civilian cooperation” which the Prime Minister had assured but wasn’t there in the 123 agreement. Yechury repeated his party’s argument against the deal that “it is a part of the US plan to make India a subordinate ally”, that this has already been reflected in India’s foreign policy like “Iran vote and Iran pipeline issue”.

Pitching on the energy point, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said the discussion was not “ideology-neutral.” “Energy is at the heart of economic growth, and we need to look at various energy sources to maintain 9 per cent growth”, he said.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress drew attention to nuclear power as a clean energy option. He pointed out that nuclear energy accounted for 60 per cent of Belgium’s energy requirements and 20 per cent of total energy requirement in countries like the US and UK.

Singhvi and Sibal countered allegations that the Hyde Act had supremacy over the 123 agreement. “The 123 agreement is the last expression of the sovereign will,” Sibal said. Singhvi said that those familiar with US laws and the working of its constitution know that the 123 agreement will have supremacy over the Hyde Act.

SP leader Amar Singh said what the Prime Minister was doing was “not honourable” though he considered Manmohan Singh a “very honourable” man. Singh accused the government of going out of its way to believe the words of President Bush while not showing readiness to pay heed to the concerns of its own allies.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will reply to the discussion tomorrow.

PM vs Yashwant vs Lalu

• BJP’s Yashwant Sinha: We didn’t go to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting because you didn’t want to annoy America

• Prime Minister: There was never any pressure on us or me... if the Indian Prime Minister goes to these meetings, he should not sit in the side lounge, coffee lounge, not be involved in an active manner

• Sinha: You did not sign this agreement (with the Russians on reactors for Koodankulam) under US pressure

• PM: Sinha is levying false charges against our government. Perhaps he is reminded of his own performance, when as India’s Finance Minister, he went to Japan and was not allowed to meet the Finance Minister there. He thinks all people are like him

• Sinha: When I was Finance Minister, the PM was Economic Advisor to the then Prime Minister

• Lalu Prasad: Such words from Yashwant Sinhaji are not right. He was PA to our leader and Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur

• Sinha: I was Principal Secretary to Karpoori Thakur. Laluji used to come to my room with requests. He even sought the release of a person who had been jailed under MISA

What they said

• Arun Shourie (BJP): Govt went for a strategic relationship with US without a strategy, ended up in strategic subservience

• D Raja (CPI): Agreement part of US grand design for Asia, wants India to become military ally

• Supriya Sule (NCP): Future generations will remember this govt with gratitude for deal

• Kanimozhi (DMK): Karunanidhi believes that the process of reconciling differences over the 123 agreement will not and should not unsettle the govt or disturb governance

• Ram Jethmalani (Ind): Deal is the best thing to have happened to India in last five decades

• Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena): Deal makes India a junior partner of the US

• DMK chief Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi’s maiden speech backing the deal saw the PM send her a congratulation note through Minister Anand Sharma. She walked to the PM’s seat and thanked him. Brinda Karat, D Raja and senior leaders patted her on the back

• SP’s Amar Singh threw a tantrum over his turn to speak and he was supported by CPM’s Brinda Karat. Prof P J Kurian, who was in the chair, wondered why was Karat getting agitated. “Comrade Karat has every right to speak on my behalf,” Singh said

•“What is your politics,” BJP’s Yashwant Sinha asked Ram Jethmalani who was backing the deal. “I am an unabashed, undoubted friend of the USA”