No threat to UPA govt: Lalu

VARANASI: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Saturday ruled out any threat to the UPA government in the wake of the stand-off with the Left parties over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

"No party, Left or Right, wants mid-term elections as it would not be beneficial for the electorate and the political parties...it would arrest the pace of the ongoing economic development in the country," he told here.

However, when journalists plied him with questions for a response on the possible fall of the government due to the crisis, he said "if it happens, what can be done".

Prasad said efforts were being made at various levels to allay the Left parties' concern over the sensitive issue.

"In fact, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has repeatedly addressed the Left parties' concerns on the nuclear issue and reiterated that the proposed deal did not compromise with our sovereignty nor our rights to conduct a nuclear test in future," he told reporters here.

Prasad said the key allies (Left), which had threatened to withdraw their support if the government went ahead with operationalising the deal, would not dislodge the government and their concerns would be addressed to their satisfaction.

When repeatedly asked about the possibility of a mid-term poll, Prasad said he was confident that the nuclear issue would not rock the boat of the government, but even if such a scenario was arised, it could not be helped.
   
On the next month's meeting between the IAEA and the Indian representatives on the deal, Prasad said the government should go ahead with negotiations as it was a continuous process. Taking a contrary view to the Left parties, he said the proposed agreement would enable the country to build infrastructural requirements like power for the ongoing development projects.

"The country requires massive infrastructure like roads, electricity, railway network etc. And the civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries would enable us to meet our infrastructural requirements in the years to come," he said.

Prasad, whose RJD is a key ally of the UPA government, also disagreed with the Left parties that the deal was strategic in nature and would bind India from conducting nuclear tests in future.

"Neither the proposed nuclear cooperation was strategic nor it would impinge on our sovereignty if at all a future government decides to conduct nuclear test," he said.

He slammed the opposition BJP for raising hackles on the nuclear issue and reminded that the saffron party-led NDA government had conducted the nuclear test in 1998 to which Pakistan had retaliated by conducting similar tests throwing the sub-continent and the world into a tizzy due to the race for oneupmanship between the two South Asian neighbours.