N-deal will curtail country’s political freedom: V P Singh

“The Government should immediately call the Parliament and get a trust vote before proceeding any further on the deal. This is the demand of democratic propriety,” Singh said in a statement in New Delhi.

“Our compulsion will be to keep the United States always humoured. While there may be some economic benefits, our political freedom would be severely restrained,” he said.

According to the deal, he said, either party can nullify the deal on one year’s notice and in such an event, India will have to return all nuclear reactors and fuel supplied by the US.

“After investing lakhs of crores in reactors and fuel, this will bring a huge financial burden, which we can hardly bear. As we would have not supplied any reactors or fuel to the US, we will have nothing to recall,” he claimed.

Singh said if any action of India is at variance, the Hyde Act will come into play forcing the US president to act and “our compulsion will be to keep US always humoured”.

“To my mind, it is not in national interest to compromise on political freedom,” he added.