The Hindu : National : We are not for destabilisation, we only want to stop nuclear deal, says Yechury

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We are not for destabilisation, we only want to stop nuclear deal, says Yechury

V.S. Palaniappan

“Nuclear agreement not only dangerous but also unacceptable”

Sitaram Yechury

Coimbatore: The objective of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is only to stop the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal and not to destabilise the government. If the government goes ahead with the deal leading to destabilisation, it will not be because of the CPI(M), Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said on Tuesday.

Addressing the Coimbatore Bar Association here, he said the deal in all respects — pretext, context and text-wise — was not only dangerous but also unacceptable and untenable.

Additional power

Referring to the Prime Minister’s statement that the country required an additional 40,000 MW and his hope that this demand would be met through nuclear reactors, Mr. Yechury said that for generating 30,000 MWe, the country should import nuclear reactors and the cost of production, at Rs. 11 crore per MWe, would be Rs. 3,30,000 crore. In comparison, the cost of hydro electric generation and natural gas per mega watt would be Rs. 3 crore, while thermal power through coal resources would cost Rs. 4 crore.

Generation of power through these indigenous resources (leave alone solar and wind energy) would cost Rs. 90,000 crore-Rs. 1,20,000 crore. Rather than spending Rs. 3.30,000 crore on nuclear power, the money saved could be spent on health and education.

Invest in youth

Instead of spending on multinationals and giving them profits, the government could invest the huge amount in youth, Mr. Yechury said. But the government, citing fund constraints, was not keeping its Common Minimum Programme commitment to spend six and three per cent of the Gross Domestic Product on education and public health.

The savings made in power generation through indigenous resources, rather than from nuclear reactors, would be sufficient to set up 2.5 lakh Navodaya Vidyalayas for providing quality education at affordable rates to 25 crore children and to open 20,000 hospitals with modern facilities and 100 beds each.

According to the National Hydro Power Corporation, only one-fifth of the potential was tapped in India.

For fear of accidents, no nuclear reactor had been installed in the U.S. in the last two decades and manufacturing facilities were lying idle. But the U.S. was trying to make India a customer for these facilities.

There would be a huge divide between the ‘Shining India’ and ‘Suffering India’ because of the deal, Mr. Yechury warned, pointing out that 78 per cent of India was still living with an income of less than Rs. 20 a day.

He said the Hyde Act would endanger India’s independence in terms of foreign policy, defence policy and strategic alliance in the region.

The nuclear deal called for a foreign policy congruent with that of the U.S. Clauses such as defence co-operation and logistics support would only make India an appendage to the U.S. imperialist actions. An independent foreign policy was the strength of India in this region, he said. Thus the context of the deal was dangerous.

The CPI(M) only wanted the Prime Minister to give nine assurances, the primary one being permanent and continuous uranium supply for reactors. But, as per the agreement, the deal could be terminated by either side with notice.

In the event of termination of uranium supply, India’s huge investments would become idle. The U.S. would also force the group of nuclear-supplier countries to stop uranium supply, the CPI(M) leader cautioned.

As per the Hyde Act, access to dual nuclear technologies, applicable in both civil and defence-related areas, would not be available to India.

UPA-Left panel meeting

The committee comprising representatives of the United Progressive Alliance and the Left would meet in April and based on its findings, a decision on the deal would be taken, Mr. Yechury said.

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