Officials of the US Administration have told the Congress time and again, and the Senate Bill builds on the fact that India is accepting safeguards (1) in perpetuity, and (2) without condition. To recall just a few observations from what the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, “Once a reactor is under IAEA oversight, safeguards will be in place permanently and without any conditions.” “We have been very clear with the Indians that the permanence of the safeguards is permanence of the safeguards without condition.” A little later, “The government of India has agreed that these safeguards will be in place in perpetuity...” Yet again, “Importantly, for the safeguards to be meaningful, India had to commit itself to apply IAEA safeguards in perpetuity; it did so. Once a reactor is under IAEA safeguards, those safeguards will remain there permanently and on an unconditional basis...”

What could the “corrective measures” be? Either that we will somehow get fuel from other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Or that we will withdraw those reactors from safeguards. The first option is stamped out by the Senate Bill providing that the US president coordinate actions with other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group so that, in the event of the US stopping supplies of fuel, equipment, technologies to India, no other member shall provide them. The second option is put down even more decisively: India is to put its reactors under safeguards in perpetuity and without condition — were it to go back on either of these features, the entire deal will be off, and all sorts of consequences — including the obligation to return to the US all plant, equipment, fuels, spares, etc. that it has obtained under the agreement as

... contd.