UPA must face electorate before implementing nuke deal: Karat

Kozhikode, Sep 1 (UNI) The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre will have to face the electorate before operationalising the proposed civilian nuclear deal, CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat claimed today.

''They will have to face the people's court'' before implementing the proposed deal as getting clearance from various agencies was a time consuming effort, he said, talking at a seminar ''Indo-US nuclear Deal: After effects'' organised by DC Books here.

It was not easy to operatanalize the deal as it required clearance from various agencies, including IAEA, Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and ultimately from the US Congress to push it through.

However, frantic efforts were on by the Manmohan Singh government to get the deal cleared, he alleged.

Reiterating the Left parties view that the deal would infringe on the country's independent foreign policy, he said not only the nuclear energy would be much costlier than hydro or thermal power, it would also make the country subservient to imperialism.

He said the UPA government, which won the trust vote in the Lok Sabha recently, was forced to skip the monsoon session of Parliament and clubbed it with the winter session as it feared facing the members' wrath in both Houses on the issue.

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