Nuclear treaty and naval exercise conspiracy of US: Bardhan

Bhubaneswar, Sep 5 (UNI) CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan today dubbed the nuclear treaty and naval exercise as a conspiracy of the US and its allies to undermine India's sovereignty and independence.

It is an irony that India, which once spearheaded the non-alignment movement in the world, has joined the joint naval exercises along with the US and its military allies, Mr Bardhan said while addressing a rally here.

He said the country had made many sacrifices for its independence adding, ''we will not allow it to be squandered away.'' He said it was wrong to believe that India would become a prosperous and developed country with the assistance of the US and the nuclear fuel supplied by it would meet the country's energy needs.

The veteran CPI leader said power generation from atomic power stations constituted a miniscule part of the total power generation adding that even after 15 years, only 20,000 MW of nuclear power could be generated if the treaty was implemented.

''But now we generate 1,36,000 MW of power and after 15 years, it would reach 2 lakh MW of power,'' he said.

He said the UPA government had made many compromises but the treaty and the decision to join the naval exercise topped them all.

Mr Bardhan said a 15-member committee had been constituted to discuss the issue with the UPA government and indicated that if the discussion failed, they would chalk out their future course of action.

The leaders of four left parties, led by Mr Bardhan, came in a rally to protest the treaty and joint exercise in the Bay of Bengal near Visakhapatnam.

The leaders of CPI, CPM, Forward Block and the RSP also addressed the rally opposing vehemently the Indo-US nuclear treaty and the ongoing Joint Naval exercise stating they were against the interest of the country and demanded to scrap it.

They asked the UPA government to go slow and not to take any decision in a hurry.

West Bengal left front Chairman and CPM politburo member Biman Basu echoed the same view.

He said if the treaty was implemented, the US would dictate the policy of the country robbing it of a number of good friends.

CPM state Secretary Janardan Pati said the nuclear treaty and the naval exercises were a conspiracy on the part of the US and its allies to make India one of its military alliance partners and convert the country into a war field.

Among others, CPI State Council Secretary Dibakar Nayak, RSP leader Sukumar Ghosh, Forward Block leader Bir Singh Mahato spoke on the occasion.

The rally, which started from the Orissa-West Bengal border last afternoon, reached here this evening on way to Visakhapatnam.

The rally would culminate at a public meeting in Visakhapatnam on September 8.

UNI