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‘Hidden agenda in nuclear deal’

Gurudas Dasgupta

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Gurudas Dasgupta, CPI Parliamentary Party leader in the Lok Sabha, has said that the UPA government has a hidden agenda in pursuing the nuclear deal with America.

Mr. Dasgupta told a news conference here on Wednesday that the hidden agenda had to do with the UPA government’s perception that this was a unipolar world in which India’s interests would be best served if it got closer to the U.S.

“This is a poor man’s philosophy. Let Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and A.K. Antony pick up some courage and tell us which country has benefited from being close to the U.S. Even the European Union is moving away from the U.S.,” he said.

The CPI leader said the U.S. wanted India to become its partner so that it could dominate the world. India must stand alone. If the nuclear deal was clinched, it would be the loss of the Indo-Iranian gas pipeline and that would be a heavy price that India would have to pay.

He said the country would also have to shell out Rs.10 lakh crore to build a dedicated reactor. This would be much beyond the country whose annual budget came to only Rs.6.5 lakh crore.

The government was trying to defend the nuclear deal and making claims about its potential benefits for the energy sector on the basis of unreal estimates and without exhausting the hydel, tidal and solar energy resources of the country, he added.

Mr. Dasgupta accused the UPA government of having given the Sangh Parivar a propaganda theme with its affidavit on the Ram Sethu issue. The government had no reason to submit such an affidavit before the Supreme Court.

The Left was opposed to the BJP stand on the issue, but it could not also agree with the casual manner in which the government handled the issue. The Left expected the government to make appropriate alterations in the affidavit, he said.

He came down heavily on the economic policies of the UPA government and pointed out that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme had proved a total failure, off-take of foodgrains from the PDS had dwindled and the agrarian crisis was not showing any sign of let-up.

The Left, he said, would launch ‘jail bharo’, ‘rasta roko’ and ‘rail roko’ agitations to protest against the Government, the CPI leader said.

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