Nuke deal will help UPA in the next LS poll : Moily

New Delhi, Sep 8 (UNI) The Congress today said the Indo-US Nuclear deal would help the UPA in a 'big way' in the next Lok Sabha elections, though it would not be the main issue that it would be highlighting before the electorate.

''Ours is not the one agenda government,'' AICC Spokesman Veerappa Moily told mediapersons, while adding that the nuclear deal would be one of the issues that would be presented before the people during the general elections.

Saying that the 'clean' waiver secured from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) enabled India to resuscitate its nuclear energy programme without endangering its nuclear deterrent, he claimed that India would emerge as a nuclear manufacturing hub in the world in the next 15 years.

''India will not merely be able to access nuclear fuel supplies to step up generation from its existing power reactors, currently operating at no more than 30-50 per cent capacity, but also free it from sanctions and denial of nuclear commerce that have debilitated its nuclear and more general technological progress for several decades,'' Mr Moily said.

He thanked both the US presidential nominees - John McCain and Barack Obama - for welcoming the NSG waiver to India.

Referring to the criticism that India would lose its rights to further nuclear tests and the foreign policy would be constrained due to the provisions of the Hyde Act, he said both the apprehensions were baseless as neither the 123 Agreement nor the NSG waiver explicitly referred to nuclear tests.

In this context, Mr Moily said it was the NDA government which had announced the unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests and the present government was merely continuing that policy.

UNI SH MIR CS1905