CPI-ML Leader speaks out against Indo-US Nuclear Deal

Patna: July 19, 2008

Communist Party of India (ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, at a seminar at Gandhi Museum in Patna on Saturday described the proposed nuclear deal between India and the US as 'anti-national' that would, if reached, would hurt the nation more than it would help.

"This is a deal that we would oppose with our full might," the Communist leader said adding his party would take its case to the streets of the nation to highlight how a nuclear deal with the United States would turn India into an US crony that would do more harm in the long run than the benefits currently touted by the Congress-led UPA government.

"I would go so far as to say that the Congress and its allies will lose big in the next Lok Sabha elections on this issue alone," Bhattacharya said.

Not leaving out the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on this issue, the CPI-ML leader said it was the Vajpayee-led NDA government that initiated this deal with the USA but now was pretending to oppose it to score political points in view of the upcoming Parliamentary elections.

Bhattacharya said his party would launch a nationwide agitation on July 23 to oppose the proposed nuclear deal adding nuclear power was not the panacea for the power crisis in the nation.

"It (nuclear power) is expensive, limited, and extremely dangerous. We will not allow the country to self-destruct in its obsession with nuclear power," he said.