Barely a week before US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns is expected in India for a crucial round of negotiations on the 123 bilateral agreement, the government has its fingers crossed with the Supreme Court slated to hear a Public Interest Litigation on the n-deal on Friday — the last day before the SC breaks up for vacation.The petition, still to be admitted, seeks direction from the court to restrain the Government from proceeding further with the final signing of the agreement “without adequate public mandate” and bring it before Parliament. It has got the government worried because anything short of dismissal of the petition could hold up negotiations on the 123 agreement given that the SC will return from vacation only on July 9.Although there is always a vacation bench, sources said, this entire process could delay matters at a time when there is urgency to finalise an agreement.While the petitioner in the PIL is M N Ramamurthy, an IIT Mumbai graduate, it turns out that he is part of an unregistered Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS) that has held seminars in Mumbai where P K Iyengar, Homi Sethna and A N Prasad — former heads of the Department of Atomic Energy and its affiliate institutions — have come and spoken against the n-deal.When asked whether these scientists are behind the petition, Ramamurthy said he is the lone petitioner but admitted to voicing the concerns of these scientists through this PIL. “Iyengar, Sethna and Prasad have all come to seminars organised by us and expressed their concerns. They are former heads of the Atomic Energy Commission and must be taken seriously. Even now, we are now in regular consultations with them..we feel there should be more national debate on this issue,” he told The Indian Express from Mumbai.It is important to note that these three scientists were among the six who had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year when the US Senate cleared the Bill enabling full civil nuclear cooperation with India. In fact, Singh had to meet these scientists and assure them that the government will not deviate from the understanding reached in the July 18 joint statement.In case the petition is admitted, it will spell bad news for negotiators who are trying to seal the 123 agreement around the time PM meets US President George W Bush on the margins of the G-8 Outreach Summit in Berlin on June 8.Judging the gravity of the situation, hectic consultations are on between MEA and the Solicitor General’s office to make a strong case and get the petition dropped on Friday itself.On the face of it, the petition makes demands that can easily be countered but its timing and its listing on the last day before the SC vacation has South Block worried. The petition asks the apex court to give a direction to the Government to release “draft-by-draft” the full text of the proposed agreement under negotiations. About nine points raising serious questions on the country’s security and sovereignty being put to stake with the signing of the agreement have been raised in the petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution.But according to well-placed sources, the Government will tell the Court that all these issues have been convincingly dealt by the Prime Minister on several occasions before the Parliament. In particular, the PM’s detailed statement in Parliament last August deals with each of the issues raised in the petition. In fact, this was the time he had met these former DAE heads and addressed their almost identical concerns in his statement in Rajya Sabha.Not only does the petition revive the same issues and seek directions on making all drafts public, it also wants the SC to ensure that the agreement is passed by Lok Sabha before it comes to force. The Government is expected to argue that international negotiations are done by the Executive and need no ratification by the Legislature.
