Govt under fire over U.S. nuclear deal

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for the government to step down on Thursday, accusing it of hiding key facts about a nuclear deal with the United States and misleading people about restrictive conditions.

The BJP, which claims the civilian deal compromises India's nuclear sovereignty, said the government "deliberately" misled the parliament when it said the deal would not compromise India's right to test a nuclear device.

U.S. officials have explicitly assured Congress in testimony -- kept secret to protect India's shaky ruling coalition -- that nuclear trade would end in the event of another test, according to correspondence leaked on Wednesday.

"It is now crystal clear that India will lose the right to nuclear tests forever as a result of this agreement," the BJP said in a statement.

"There is also no doubt any more that this deal does not contain any binding commitments by Americans and others regarding fuel supplies and on transfer of technology."

Refusing to comment on the leaked U.S. State Department document, the Indian government said it stood by its unilateral moratorium on tests, but that India still had the right to test should it want to.

Anil Kakodkar, the chief of India's atomic agency, described the pact as a "win-win" deal for both sides.

"A quick reading tells me that it doesn't take away anything that we have been saying before in India," he told the NDTV news channel.

The controversy has broken out when the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is meeting in Vienna to consider a revised U.S. proposal to lift a ban on trade with India which is not a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.