Shiv Sena likens Nuke deal to inviting second East India co

New Delhi, Jul 21 (UNI) Shiv Sena leader Anant Gangaram Geete today said the Indo-US nuclear deal was akin to inviting the second East India Company to the country.

Participating in the debate in the Lok Sabha on the confidence motion moved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr Geete said the biggest catch in this deal was the Hyde Act which could overrule any law as per the US Constitution and would be applicable on us.

He said the Government which claimed that this nuclear deal would solve the power crisis of the country, providing electricity in all households across all villages was a false claim.

He said that as of today, over 45 per cent of the villages in the country did not have any electricity distribution system, then ''how can we provide power to the people in those regions?'' He said, ''Nuclear energy is a costly proposition and we should rather first try to garner our hydel potential to the maximum.'' He said recently Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had announced at a meeting that the country has the potential to generate over 1.5 lakh MW of power then why any attention was not being paid towards that.

He said that despite all claims on farmers' loan waiver, the farmers were not getting any fresh loans from the banks and there would be again a spurt in their suicides. He challenged the Government that if proved wrong, he would resign from the membership of the House.

This provoked a strong reaction from the Congress and NCP members from Maharashtra.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel urged the Speaker to ask Mr Geete to resign first or prove these charges. He was strongly supported by A R Antulay (Cong), Madhusudan Mistry (Congress MP from Gujarat) and Ramdas Bandhu Athawale (RPI-A) and many other members.

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