Nuke deal a surrender to US : Karat

Kolkata, Oct 14 (UNI) CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat today averred that the Nuke deal was an abject surrender to the United States and a betrayal of India's interests.

Addressing newspersons at the end of the three-day Central Committee meeting of the party here, Mr Karat said the Manmohan Singh Government signed the 123 agreement despite the fact that the US law approving the agreement has all the restrictions and conditions in the Hyde Act.

''The agreement does not provide assurance of uniterrupted fuel supply and moreover there is no assurance also regarding building a strategic fuel reserve for the life time of the reactor,'' he asserted.

''Whatever corrective measures India takes regarding fuel supply failure does not permit taking the reactors out of safeguards and the consent to reprocess is only notional,'' he said adding, ''The US will work to prevent other countries from providing nuclear supplies to India, if the US terminates the agreement.'' Mr Karat described as ''deceptive'' the claim of the Congress that the deal would provide electricity for every house and village in the country and questioned who was going to pay for the import of 10,000 MW of nuclear reactors from the United States which would cost Rs 3,00,15,000 crores.

UNI KDG-AKM SJC JT CS2002