PM Manmohan Singh has said the civil nuclear cooperation with the US was crucial for ending nuclear apartheid against India.
NEW DELHI: Ahead of Wednesday's UPA-Left meet on Indo-US nuclear deal issue, there were little signs of a forward movement with top leaders of the ruling alliance, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, having made a strong pitch for the agreement while Left parties making clear their continued opposition to it.
With the political stalemate on the deal deepening in the face of stiff deadlines, Singh has said the civil nuclear cooperation with the US was crucial for ending nuclear apartheid against India.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi too spoke in favour of the agreement saying it was key to fight price rise, a major headache of the UPA government, triggered by unabated spiralling of international crude oil prices and food grains.
"Nuclear energy has gained much importance in view of steep crude oil prices in the world," she said at a rally in Guwahati terming escalating prices as the "biggest challenge" before the country.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government's pointsman on matters relating to the nuclear deal, made a strong case for nuclear power terming it as the "most potent means" to achieve long-term energy security.
The Left parties, however, maintained their opposition to the deal with the US. The CPI(M) suggested that it was not opposed to a safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
"Our objection is not with IAEA. Our objection is with the 123 agreement (for operationalising the deal), which according to us is very deeply anchored in the Hyde Act (of the US)," CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury had said.
Despite the stiff opposition to the deal from the Left parties, the Prime Minister has maintained that the deal will open up new possibilities of cooperation not only with the US but also with other nuclear powers like Russia and France.
Mukherjee appeared to be blunt in his remarks favouring the nuclear deal. "We are not going for nuclear power for fun but to meet the power requirement," he said at a meeting with the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Notwithstanding the statements from the top leaders of the ruling alliance, the CPI(M) insisted that it has apprehensions with regard to the deal and will give its nod only when these are addressed.
CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said the deal is a pretext by the US to make India its "outpost" in the region to check the growth of China.
The UPA-Left committee, set up in November last year to resolve the differences between government and Left allies over the nuclear deal, will meet on June 18 to discuss whether the government should go ahead with signing the safeguards agreement with IAEA.
The government hopes to get the go-ahead from the Left to comlpete the safeguards agreement and seek waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group from its guidelines to participate in international atomic trade. The two steps are required to
operationalise the nuclear deal.
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