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Thursday, Jul 17, 2008
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Nuclear deal first, government later: Rahul

Special Correspondent

“Youth leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party also favour the deal”

LUCKNOW: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has said the nuclear deal is in the national interest. The party and the government were secondary to issues in the country’s interest.

Talking to newspersons at Jais in Rae Bareli district on Wednesday, the Amethi MP said he was confident that the UPA government would survive the trial of strength in Parliament on July 22. He wondered why there was so much opposition to the deal. He had talked to a cross-section of youth leaders cutting across party lines and all of them supported the deal.

As for the BJP’s opposition, he claimed that the youth leaders (MPs) of the BJP favoured the deal.

Mr. Gandhi said he was proud of Manmohan Singh’s record as the Prime Minister. Dr. Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had excelled as leaders to whom the country’s interest was paramount.

Mr. Gandhi, on a three-day visit to his constituency, concluded his tour on Wednesday. He started his visit from Zainabganj in the Jagdishpur Assembly segment, where he addressed a meeting of chairmen of 61 gram panchayats and nine nyaya panchayats. He asked the panchayat chairmen to be prepared for the Lok Sabha election.

His next stop was Haliyapur, where he told the people that steps would be taken to redress their grievances.

He attacked the BSP government for the slow pace of development work in the constituency, including implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.

On Tuesday, Mr. Gandhi was scheduled to inaugurate a lawyers’ chamber in Gauriganj. But permission was reportedly denied by the district administration of Sultanpur.

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