Left holding country back from going ahead : Sibal

Kolkata, Sep 8 (UNI) Striking the development chord to counter opposition to the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Union Minister Kapil Sibal today said the Left parties were "confusing Bush with Bijli" to hold back the country from progress.

Asserting that it was not possible to renegotiate the 123 agreement, he said the Left parties were "entirely uninformed" as the Hyde Act was of no relevance to the proposed treaty.

" The Left parties are confusing Bush with Bijli...their only plank is opposition to America and there is no reply to why and how any of the provisions of the agreement impinges on India's sovereignty, " he told a press conference at the Pradesh Congress office.

Arguing that the Indo-US agreement had been carved out pursuant to certain waivers of prohibitions contained in section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, Mr Sibal said the US had committed that it would not interfere, directly or indirectly in India's nuclear programme.

" The 123 agreement has nothing to do with the Hyde Act, which the Left is harping on...nor does it have anything to do with military cooperation, " he said.

Mr Sibal said once the agreement was approved by the US Congress, it would become the "last expression of the sovereign will" overriding all other laws and even the Constitution of the US, he said.

Perhaps in the first public retort by a UPA Minister to the Left clamour over the issue, Mr Sibal said power was in huge demand for future development and there was no way to meet the demand-supply gap but to go nuclear.

" We have to reach power to the common people. Do not block the way...we are not for the US nor for anybody else. We are only for India, " he said.

The Union Science and Technology Minister observed that it was "double standard" for the Left to remain US-baiters, when even countries like Vietnam and China had become "friends" of America.

" When the whole world is advancing, why you pull the country back, " he asked the Left parties.

He called upon them to sit across the negotiation table and understand the issue.

" I expect the Left to support us. We want to work with them till the Government completes its term, " Mr ibal said in reply to a question on the possibility of snapping ties between the two sides.

He said the agreement was equipped with specific safeguards to be put in place following negotiation with the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSF) for the country's 14 nuclear reactors allowing them to have access to nuclear fuel.

India would be the only exception in the global non-proliferation regime who not having signed the NPT would be granted waivers from a large number of prohibitions, he said.

UNI