Inderjit Singh defends Left opposition to 123 N-deal

Fatehabad, Oct 18 (UNI) Communist Party (Marxist) Punjab state secretary Inderjit Singh today said that CPM's stand on the 123 nuclear deal was based on principles and was in the interest of the country.

Mr Singh today the United States of America wanted to establish its hegemony over India through this deal and had laid down conditions that were detrimental to the nation's interests.

He said that India had earlier signed 123 treaty with the US in 1963 and was getting uranium fuel for the Tarapur Atomic Plant from that country but the US unilaterally cancelled the agreement in 1974, when India did its first nuclear test Pokhran-I.

He said that the Hyde Act passed by the US parliament provided that the US President would submit report of India 's good conduct to the US Congress every year and only after its approval the supply of uranium fuel would be continued.

Mr Inderjit Singh said that India was going to invest Rs 2 Lakh crore on nuclear reactors but the conditions of the US were such that they would be free to hold back the supply of fuel at their will.

The CPM leader alleged that the Congress had been projecting a wrong picture the Left Front before the nation on this issue.

He said that the Left never threatened to withdraw its support to the UPA government but it only warned the government of serious repercussions if it went ahead with the deal.

He also accused the Congress of misleading the people on the question of power production from the uranium India was likely to get from the treaty.

Presently the power generated from the atomic power plants was merely 3 percent of the total power produced and it would not exceed 7 percent by the year 2020, he claimed.

Mr Singh said as of today 55 percent of the total power produced in India was from thermal plants and 25 percent was produced from hydel projects and added hydrocarbon fuel and not the atomic was the best option for India and the government should not be oblivious of this fact.

He also expressed hope that Central government would not take further steps to make the deal operational till the issue was discussed in parliament.

UNI