Nuclear deal is not anti-Muslim :Sonia

New Delhi, Aug 4 (UNI) Seeking to silence her detractors who dubbed the nuclear deal 'anti-Muslim," Congress president Sonia Gandhi today said this agreement would benefit India and all Indians irrespective of caste, language, region or religion.

"I do want to emphasise one point, to counter the attempts made by some of our political opponents to give a communal colour to the nuclear agreement. This must be condemned in the strongest possible terms," she said in her "Letter to Congresspersons" in the Party's mouthpiece "Congress Sandesh." Referring to the July 22 vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha, Ms Gandhi said the UPA victory was not only a vindication of the civilian nuclear agreement, but also an endorsement of the policies of the Manmohan Singh Government.

Defending the Indo-US Nuclear deal, she said the agreement would enable the country to generate more electricity while fully protecting national sovereignty and defence interests.

"Our needs for electricity are so great and growing that we cannot depend only on coal and water resources. We have to use nuclear energy in a big way," Ms Gandhi said, adding that the agreement would benefit "our farmers, our families, our trade and industry and our ecoomy." She urged the Congressmen to communicate to the people at large, the significance of the nuclear agreement so that they were able to see the correctness of the party stand.

UNI SH GT KP1936