US forcing costly nuke energy on India: Yechury

Kochi, Aug 19: CPI-M politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury today accused the United States of wanting to dump nuclear reactors on India through the proposed Indo-US nuclear deal.

Speaking at a function here to launch the Kerala edition of the CPI-M party paper 'People's Democracy', he said the US had not put up a single new nuclear reactor to produce energy in the past 30 years.

''This is mainly because of the problem of disposal of nuclear reactor waste and the high cost of producing nuclear energy. Yet, it wants India to switch to costly, environment-unfriendly nuclear power generation so it could sell reactors to this country,'' he said.

Presently, nuclear energy contributed 3,000 MW or 2.5 per cent of total power generation in India. The government wanted to increase this to 10,000 MW, constituting five per cent, by 2015.

'Just for this five per cent of electric power, are we today ready to surrender to US imperialism our foreign policy,' he asked.

Calling for a national debate on the right energy mix, he said when cheaper options like coal, gas and hydro-power were available in plenty in India, there was no need to look at nuclear energy.

Mr Yechury said concerted pressure exerted by the Left had forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to agree to come back to Parliament before signing any further agreements with the US on the issue.

The Prime Minister had also accepted the nine points raised by the Left parties and declared that if any of the concerns were not addressed, the deal would not go through, Mr Yechury said.

Mr Yechury said it was only because the Congress-led UPA Government was dependent on outside support on the Left parties had Parliament seen any discussion on the emerging relationship with the US. During the six years of NDA rule, the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh had carried on ''behind the scenes, secret discussions'' with the US and the country had to know the details of these talks through the book published by his US counterpart Strobe Talbott.

Stressing the need for Parliamentary ratification of international treaties so that a minority government was not able to make commitments that Parliament at large was opposed to, Mr Yechury reiterating that the Left parties were extending support to the Congress only to keep communal forces at bay. The Left was trying its best to shift the focus of economic reforms from corporate profits to people's welfare, he added.

underlining the crucial role played by 'People's Democracy' in articulating CPI-M ideology and mobilising public opinion on national and international issues, Mr Yechury, who is also chief editor of the weekly paper, said it was their endeavour to bring back to the mainstream agenda, the people's problems and issues.

He accused the 'bourgeois media' of being inimical to Communism in general and the CPI-M in particular.

Later, Mr Yechury presented the first copy of the Kerala edition of 'People's Democracy' to Kochi Mayor Mercy Williams.

Also present at the function were Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, State Fisheries Minister S Sarma, noted writer Sukumar Azhikode and Chief Editor of 'Deshabhimani' V V Dakshinamoorthy.

UNI

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