The Hindu : National : Nuclear deal may make India an easy victim of U.S. blackmail, says CITU

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Tuesday, Oct 09, 2007
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Nuclear deal may make India an easy victim of U.S. blackmail, says CITU

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) working committee has noted with “serious concern” the government’s insistence on going ahead with the India-U.S. nuclear deal despite widespread opposition by the Left parties and other political forces.

The opposition has come from a majority in Parliament, said a resolution passed at the end of the three-day working committee meeting that concluded here on Monday.

The committee was of the firm opinion that the deal in its present form in the context of the Hyde Act might make India an easy victim of U.S. ‘blackmail’ not only in the matter of nuclear projects but also in the wider area of the U.S. ‘imperialist hegemonistic design.’

Falling into such an ‘imperialistic’ trap would affect the country’s economic independence and political sovereignty, which the working class movement could ignore only at its peril, the resolution said.

Briefing reporters, CITU president M.K. Pandhe said the government would have to face the consequences if it decided to go ahead with the deal.

Sethu project

Another resolution expressed concern over the attempts being made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners to ‘sabotage’ the Sethusamudram project.

The survey for the project was carried out during the NDA period, and now the same political partners were opposing it on “baseless grounds,” exposing their hypocrisy.

Their objections are based on myth and faith but certainly not on any archaeological, geological or oceanic studies which have proved beyond question that the bund was not man made but a natural one, the resolution said.

While congratulating the working class of the people of Tamil Nadu on a successful strike throughout the State on October 1 demanding the implementation of the project, the resolution urged the government to “do everything possible to overcome obscurantist obstacles and ensure time-bound completion of the same in the interest of the entire nation.”

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