Sonia says Nuke deal in the long term interests of India

New Delhi, Sep 1 (UNI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi has hailed the Indo-US civil Nuclear treaty as being "in the interests of India in the long term," and congratulated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team of "able" negotiators for hammering out the treaty.

Not withstanding the opposition from the Left Parties, whose support is crucial for the survival of the 38-month-old first Congress-led coalition government at the Centre, Ms Gandhi said the treaty that was hammered out by Dr Singh and his team "satisfies all the conditions" laid out before Parliament.

"India and the US have signed a historic 123 agreement on civil nuclear cooperation that lifts the decades-old embargo against nuclear trade with India. This will allow India to expand its energy sector to meet the growing demands of our economic growth and put an end to the power shortages that we are all familiar with," she said in a letter to the party workers and published in the latest issue of the party's official journal "Sandesh." Rebutting the Opposition's allegation that all shades of opinion were not taken into consideration on the Indo-US nuclear issue, Ms Gandhi maintained that the government had kept informed the UPA allies, Left Parties and the Opposition parties throughout the negotiations with the United States.

In this context, she said "we have negotiated with the US keeping our national interests in the forefront and India's nuclear defence programme has been in no way undermined," she said.

She said in her writing that the agreement would help the country expand power generation which would help the growth of its agricultural and industrial sectors.

"The deal is a recognition of the achievements of India's scientists who have worked diligently to keep the indigenous nuclear programme alive," she said.

In an indirect condemnation of the Opposition agitation in Parliament against the government's policies and programmes, Ms Gandhi asked the Opposition to use the Parliament to air their differences instead of forcing "unnecessary adjournments" at the cost of precious time of the house and wastage of tax payer's money.

UNI