NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to make a statement in Parliament on Monday on the controversial proposed nuclear deal with the United States.

According to official sources, the Prime Minister hopes to address the primary objection of the critics — political and within the strategic community — that the "deal" would cap India's nuclear military programme.

Strategic programme

According to the sources, Dr. Singh is expected to state categorically that the deal has nothing to do with India's strategic programme, and that India would "reserve the right to build more military plants" over and above what may be declared "military" in the proposed separation of the existing 22 nuclear plants into the "civilian" and "military" categories.

The Prime Minister will to try to set at rest the well-articulated apprehension in the strategic community that the July 2005 agreement would cripple and eventually "cap" India's capacity to have the flexibility of updating and enhancing the size of its nuclear deterrence.

No roll-back

Dr. Singh's bottom line, according to the sources, will be: "No cap, no roll-back" of India's nuclear military programme.

In recent days, the officials have been keen to explain that the "reciprocal" dimension of the July 2005 agreement would be applicable in letter and spirit.

Not move even an inch

As one official involved in the negotiations with Washington explained, India would not move an inch (on its part of the bargain) till the Bush Administration is able to secure (as part of its side of the bargain) the requisite Congressional endorsement and put in place new laws and rules, which would dismantle the post-1974 discriminatory nuclear regime.

The Prime Minister's statement, however, would not be able to ease the disquiet among the political parties on U.S. President George Bush. The Left and a number of political parties supporting the UPA have raised their voice of protest against Mr. Bush.

Congress divided

The Congress itself is divided on how not to let the Muslim community's indignation over the Danish cartoon controversy spill over into anti-Bush sentiment.

On Sunday, Dr. Singh gave an interview to an American television channel in which he focussed on the India-U.S. relationship in the context of the Bush visit.

"U.S. has to rebuild trust"

The Prime Minister, according to his aides, argued that the U.S. had to rebuild its trust with India.

This is pertinent particularly in the nuclear field where the Indian scientific establishment has been discriminated against and a whole generation of scientists has come into its own, without having access to research resources, which were available, say, to the Chinese nuclear establishment.

The onus was on the U.S. to walk the extra mile to rebuild trust.

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