The Left parties continued its opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal while making clear that it has no plans of pulling down the UPA Government or for going for mid-term polls.
Participating at a seminar on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury on Saturday said that the left parties were not interested in going for mid-term elections or creating political instability in the country.
Calling on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to initiate a discussion in the parliament to debate the implications of the deal on the sovereignty and security of the country, he said that the Government should pause the deal for the time being.
“All we are asking the Prime Minister is to press the pause button and not the stop or eject button. We would not allow the Government to be drawn into the war tricks of US Imperialism blindly,” he said.
Yechuri slams govt
Slamming the Government claim that if the deal we
nt through it would change the energy scenario in the country he said, “If the deal is through then by the year 2030 we would be producing 40,000 MW of energy.
The cost of producing 1 MW of energy through these imported reactors would be Rs 11 crore, while for generating the same 1 MW of energy through coal or hydro-electricity would cost only Rs 4 and Rs 3 crore respectively,” he added.
Denying that the Left parties were opposing the deal in support of China he said that if India signs the 123 agreement then it would put a cap on India’s nuclear programme for ever and such a situation would be beneficial only for China and Pakistan.
“US President George Bush is pushing the deal to gain popularity and help the the Republicans win the elections next year. The deal will provide a number of job opportunities in the US once the nuclear reactors there which are lying idle for the last three decades becomes operational,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Dr Gopalakrishnan said that if the deal went through it would be a major set back.
“Apart from compromising on our programmes, our reactors would be put in danger as the maintaining safety standards would not be on their agenda, it would lead to a major disaster like what happened in Bhopal a few year ago,” he said.
