Kerala CM pooh-poohs Abdul Kalam's claims

Thiruvnanthapuram, Jul 12: Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) politbureau member VS Achuthanandan on Friday, Jul 11 made light of former former president APJ Abdul Kalam's support for the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying Kalam was only one of the space scientists who send " rockets in to skies". He also said that at least a dozen top scientists of the country had said the deal would seriously harm the national interests.

When asked how he took Kalam's endorsement of the deal, he quipped "Kalam is a scientist who sends rockets to the skies just like Kasthuri Rangan or G.Madhavan Nair."Asked what would be the position of the Lok Sabha Speaker Somanath Chatterjee when the trust vote is taken up in Parliament, he said "he (Somnath) has himself said about that".

When pressed more on the issue, he quipped "if he is not voting with us it would just mean that we are getting one vote less."
Achuthanandan dubbed as a "totally puerile" Congress propoganda that China had clinched a nuclear deal with the United States with more or less on similar conditions.

The deal China had entered into with America had provisions to wriggle out of it if that country felt that its sovereignty was in jeopardy.
In sharp contrast, the deal to which the Manmohan Singh government was taking India would turn the country into "a servile vassal' of the American imperialists and toll the death knell of its independent foreign policy and non-alignment principles", he alleged.

OneIndia News