Congress asks Left, BJP to support the nuke deal

New Delhi, Oct 3 (UNI) Hailing the Indo-US Nuclear deal as ''unique, unprecedented and stand-alone,'' the Congress today asked the BJP and the Left Parties to sink their differences over the deal in the interests of the nation.

AICC Spokesman Abishek Manu Singhvi told mediapersons that some among the 45 countries in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) had opposed a clean waiver to India, but they had buried the differences and supported it later.

''If the members of the NSG could sink differences and give approval for the waiver in a short time, is it not possible for our doubting Thomases to bury their differences for the interests of the nation,'' he asked.

''When India has so gloriously gone through so many fora, why is it that there is no applause in Beijing, Islamabad, Nagpur (RSS headquarters) and Delhi (CPI-M headquarters).'' Dr Singhvi said it was the first and only time in the history of the nuclear movement that any country had got raw material uranium and equipment supply without signing the CTBT and NPT.

''Never before has any country got such an important international deal cleared with lightning speed in IAEA, NSG and the US Congress,'' he said, adding that India had signed the safeguards agreement with IAEA, secured waiver from the NSG and final nod from the US Congress, all within two and a half months.

He said the US House of Representatives and the Senate passed the 123 agreement in an extremely short period despite the fact that there was turmoil in the US financial market.

''This is the culmination of the historic journey that started in 1974 when Ms Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister,'' he said, adding that ''Ms Gandhi began the process and it came full the circle under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.'' India's status must make every Indian proud. Those who were still critical and not satisfied need to introspect, he added.

He said India managed to achieve six per cent economic growth in 27 years. But the economy had started growing to 8 to 8.5 per cent in the past four years under the UPA rule.

Saying that the governement was making efforts to jump start it to a double-digit growth, Dr Singhvi said this was not possible without increasing availability of power.

The deal, he said, would help to make available the much needed energy to spur all round growth.

UNI SH RR CS1838