India should go ahead with nuke deal: M R Srinivasan

BANGALORE: Disagreeing with the reservations expressed by left parties and the BJP on Indo-US nuclear deal, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission M R Srinivasan suggested on Saturday that India should go ahead with the deal, while protecting its interests.
    
"India cannot remain out of the nuclear club. It has to be within it, if it has to protect its interest and call shots", Srinivasan said while talking at a discussion on the deal, organised by the Karnataka Chapter of Indian Institute of Public Administration here.
    
"The option of remaining out of the nuclear regime will not help the country. We can be part of it, engage in it", he said.
    
"I know this is not a best deal for India. Even in the US they say it is not best for them. But this is an agreement we should go ahead with", Srinivasan stressed.
    
He said efforts should be made to boost civil nuclear power generation, which was as low as three per cent of the total electricity production, quite meagre when compared to 75 to 80 per cent in countries like France.
    
He said the arguement of the left parties that nuclear energy production costs were high, was unfounded. He asserted that the cost of production was less compared to other sources of energy.
    
Srinivasan who is also the member of the Atomic Energy Tariff Committee, said the energy that would be produced at Koodankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu was expected to cost Rs 2.40 per kilo watt hour.
    
The cost is less than Re one at Tarapur plant, he said.
    
"India should aim at increasing its nuclear power production to the level of 25 per cent to 30 per cent by 2050", Srinivasan suggested.
    
Srinivasan said the US, France and other countries which are in the nuclear club, call the shots just because "they are into it".
    
"If we are out of it, nobody will listen to us. This point is not understood by BJP and left parties", he said.
    
Srinivasan wanted India to import more number of light- water reactors to boost nuclear power generation.
    
Under the existing 123 agreement based on Hyde Act, it was not be possible for India to conduct nuclear test, he said, while pointing out that the country had not attempted one after the Pokhran-II test in 1998 during NDA regime.
    
After the 1998 test, the then prime minister A B Vajpayee had announced a moratorium on tests, he said and opined that "the present government has no option but to observe voluntary moratorium".
    
In a word of caution, Srinivasan said "what is the guarantee that the US or China will not conduct nuclear tests. The US itself is talking about replacing nuclear weapons with more reliable ones".
    
Commenting on BJP's claims that the agreement will affect India's strategic relations with the US, Srinivasan said "it is an unfair reading of the agreement".