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Why is Congress silent now on nuclear deal?: Karat

Staff Reporter

“The country still faces acute power shortage”

We will review accord .; tap alternative sources
In Telecom Ministry alone more than Re.1 lakh crore has been swindled

KANCHEEPURAM: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Thursday asked why the Congress and its allies were not talking about the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal in this election.

While every sphere of the economy suffered because of acute power shortage, the United Progressive Alliance government claimed that the deal would help the country solve the problem, he said. “It is nothing but a big fraud.” By signing the accord India agreed to pay more than Rs. 2.80 lakh crore for setting up nuclear reactors for generating 10,000 MWe. But the UPA constituents now stopped talking about the nuclear deal simply because the country still faced acute power shortage. “We will review the nuclear deal and will produce electricity by tapping alternative sources if people vote the non-Congress and non-BJP alliance to power at the Centre.” Mr. Karat was addressing a rally here in support of the AIADMK candidate for the Kancheepuram (Reserve) Lok Sabha seat, E. Ramakrishnan.

Mr. Karat said the Congress-led UPA government had set a shameless record in corruption and in protecting corrupt persons.

“Two days ago it was decided to drop the name of [Ottavio] Quattrocchi, Italian businessmen, from the list of Red Corner Notice [of the Interpol] as the Congress wanted to bury the Bofors payoffs case. This was nothing but an achievement of Congress” Mr. Karat said. In the last five years of UPA rule, several instances of corruption had taken place which put together would involve a sum 1,500 times more than the Rs. 64-crore payoffs in the Bofors scam, he said. “I am sorry to state that some of the Union Ministers from Tamil Nadu are more corrupt,” Mr. Karat said, adding that in the Telecom Ministry alone more than Rs.1 lakh crore had been swindled. “When we demanded an inquiry the Manmohan Singh government refused it. The then Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said that nothing illegal had taken place and hence there was no need for an inquiry.”

The CPI(M) general secretary said the policies pursued by the Congress-led Govt.t resulted in foreign institutional investors taking back their money, without paying any tax, through the Mauritius route. He lauded the AIADMK for joining Communists in their efforts at checking the outflow of money through the Mauritius route. Claiming that the five-party alliance led by the AIADMK would sweep the polls in the State, Mr. Karat said that in the last Lok Sabha elections the verdict given by Tamil Nadu voters resulted in the formation of the UPA government. But this time the Tamil Nadu verdict would decide the formation of a non-Congress /non-BJP secular alliance government.

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