Close on the heels of statements given by senior Left leaders Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the need of nuclear energy, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Prakash Karat today said the Left parties were in favour of nuclear power, but opposed the Indo-US deal.
Chandigarh, Sept 23 : Close on the heels of statements given by senior Left leaders Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the need of nuclear energy, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Prakash Karat today said the Left parties were in favour of nuclear power, but opposed the Indo-US deal.
Karat said that the Left was against the Indo-US bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation deal, because it would harm country's self-reliant nuclear development.
"Opposition to nuclear agreement with U.S. does not mean that we are against nuclear power. We want nuclear power. Already our country has developed nuclear technology and power. Our argument is that this agreement with U.S. will harm our self-reliant nuclear development," he said.
Karat further said that the comments of Basu and Bhattacharjee in support of nuclear energy did not mean they supported the nuclear deal with the United States.
Karat asked the government not to pursue the deal without examining the Left parties' concerns.
"Through the (UPA-Left panel on nuclear deal) committee our effort is to convince the government precisely that there are so many issues that need further examination so don't proceed till all these things are cleared," said Karat, who is on a tour to create awareness on the dangers with going ahead with the nuclear deal with the US.
Communists say the deal hurts India's sovereignty and exposes the country's foreign policy to Washington's influence.
They have threatened to end their support if the government pursues talks needed to secure global approvals for the deal.
The Left parties have rejected the government's response to the concerns expressed by them over the nuclear deal, saying they were not convinced with the Centre's contention on the issue.
The government had earlier submitted its reply to a five-page note of the Left's objections on the deal.
The UPA-Left committee set up to resolve the differences over the nuclear deal held its first meeting on September 11, with the members outlining the agenda for the discussion.
The committee framed the issue following broad issues for discussion, implications of the Hyde Act on Indo-nuclear 123 Agreement and on the self-reliance in the nuclear sector, implications on foreign policy and security cooperation.
The 15-member panel, which is headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, comprises of Union Cabinet Ministers, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Saifuddin Soz, Prithviraj Chavan, Lalu Prasad, T R Baalu and Sharad Pawar; and six Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, D Raja, Debabrata Biswas and T J Chandrachoodan.
The panel was named after Left, which provides crucial support to the UPA Government, rejected the bilateral nuclear deal with the US, and warned the Government of serious consequences if it went ahead with operationalising the Agreement.
The Government had said that the agreement would be operationalised after taking into account the committee's findings.
ANI