"This is a historic, remarkable and unprecedented event. Nothing of this sort had happened in the recent past. Nuclear commerce with 45 countries would commence now and this heralds a new era of energy security," Congress media department chief M Veerappa Moily said.
He said the waiver is not tainted by any conditions and is a very ‘clean’ waiver.
"No country in the world has got it without signing the NPT," Moily said, hoping that the deal would go through in US President George W Bush's regime.
Asked about the letter between the two US agencies in Washington and the Opposition charges, Moily said it was a non-issue.
"It is a dead letter. A non-issue," he said.
Reacting to BJP's stand on the waiver, party spokesman Manish Tewari said it is ‘paranoid patriotism’ and the move is yet another slap on the face of the Opposition.
"Thirty four years after our first test, the nuclear apartheid has crumbled safeguarding our nuclear autonomy," Tewari said, adding, ‘for every Indian this is a red letter day’.
Asked if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take a sense of the House after the deal, he replied in the affirmative.