NEW DELHI: The Government on Monday rejected suggestions that the 123 Agreement on the India-U.S. nuclear deal be brought before Parliament for ratification. It sought to know why the Bharatiya Janata Party Government declared unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests and was now stating that the UPA Government "mortgaged" country's interests.

"Nobody is going to mortgage... not the Congress party which fought for the freedom and also obscurantist [forces]... I don't think a Congress Prime Minister would mortgage national interest," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in response to the comments by the Leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, who initiated the discussion on the nuclear cooperation in the Lok Sabha.

"U.S. obligation"

Mr. Mukherjee said the legislation was to seek waiver for the U.S. administration to cooperate with India and references to the Fissile Material Control Treaty and annual report was the obligation of the U.S. administration and not India.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group would also have to amend guidelines since as per rules it could not deal with countries that had nuclear weapons programme and the safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency would have to be country-specific.

He said that while India had large reserves of thorium, unless blocks to technology were removed, despite having the best brains and talent, scientific community could not show its mettle to the fullest extent. Mr. Mukherjee urged members not to bring extraneous political elements into the deal and said that unless the U.S. cooperated, no other country would.

The Minister said India's relations with one country did not depend on its relations with another country and cited the recent successful visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to India though China and Pakistan shared excellent relationship.

Reject deal: Advani

Earlier, Mr. Advani said India must reject the deal as it made the country's strategic interests subservient to the U.S. "Every assurance given to Parliament in the past will be violated if you go ahead with the deal," he said. Such was the nature of the agreement that had it been in place pre-1970, India would not have been able to conduct its first nuclear test.

Reminding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of his July statement, when he said forward movement on the deal would be made only after a "broad national consensus," Mr. Advani pointed out that there was no consensus even within the small community of nuclear scientists and the United Progressive Alliance arrangement, leave alone Parliament and other political parties.

And to buttress this point, he said had there been a consensus within polity the Government would not have shied away from having this discussion under Rule 184, which allowed a vote on the issue. His deputy V. K. Malhotra raised this point also shortly after Question Hour when the business of the day was being rescheduled to facilitate the nuclear debate.

Referring to his notice that the discussion take place under Rule 184 instead of Rule 193, Mr. Malhotra said this was the only way to get the sense of the House.

Rejects notice

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee rejected the notice amid protests from the Biju Janata Dal leader Braja Kishore Tripathi.

Rup Chand Pal (CPI-M) said the U.S. had both economic and political interest in the deal aimed at reviving the energy sector demand and pit India to contain China. The deal was not acceptable and even nuclear scientists were disheartened.

Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) demanded that the 123 Agreement be brought for ratification by Parliament and sought to know the cost of going ahead with the deal. He said India was seeking to be close to the U.S. to get investments for development and growth.

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