Left parties slam nuclear deal with US

The Left has asked the Government to come clean on its plan to separate civilian and military nuclear facilities.

The Left on Wednesday asked the Government to come clean on its plan to separate civilian and military nuclear facilities even as former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra said the civil nuclear deal with the US posed a threat to India's strategic programme.

HT Image

Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary AB Bardhan said: "Whatever plan the Government has prepared for the separation of civilian and military nuclear facilities should be communicated to us also.

"The US is bracing for putting in the civilian list the fast breeder reactors programme which has already been built with our indigenous resources," he said.

"We will lose our sovereignty this way," Bardhan said.

The CPI, along with other three communist parties, supports Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition Government from outside.

To support his criticism of the nuclear deal with the US, Bardhan cited Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar's contention that putting the fast breeder reactor programme and indigenous reactors in the civilian nuclear list would damage India's interests.

Manmohan Singh will make a statement in the forthcoming parliamentary session on the status of nuclear negotiations with the US ahead of President George Bush's visit to India in March.

In his scathing critique of the nuclear deal, Bardhan found support from an unlikely source - former national security advisor Mishra.

"The problem with this deal is that it will affect our strategic nuclear programme, that is the development of our nuclear warheads," Mishra said in an interview with NDTV.

Mishra said the agreement should be re-negotiated so that it did not impair India's strategic interests.

"What does credible mean? I am committed to credible minimum nuclear deterrence," he said, referring to Washington's demand for a "credible and transparent" plan from New Delhi to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities.