Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary A B Bardhan kept up the pressure on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal on Sunday, saying that the government would have to pay a heavy price if it goes ahead with the deal.

Mr Bardhan emphasised that if the Congress did not relent on the nuclear deal, it would pay a “heavy political price” making it clear that the Left parties were prepared for a mid-term poll. He claimed that the Left would be betraying the sovereignty and the independence of the country if it caved in on the sensitive issue. He also claimed that the meeting of the Left parties in New Delhi on Monday will only decide the way in which a notice will be given to the UPA government and claimed that there is no scope for an negotiations on the nuclear deal.

He also stressed that the Left will not compromise at the cost of the freedom and sovereignty of the country. 

Mr Bardhan was in Ahmedabad to attend the state level convention on ‘People's Rights and the Issue of Democracy in Gujarat’ organised by the Lok Sangharsh Morcha and other non-government organisations working for tribal welfare.

Refusing to rule out the possibility of parliamentary polls ahead of the assembly elections in Gujarat, Mr Bardhan claimed that bartering the pride and sovereignty of the country to an imperialist force was a huge price to pay for a meagre 20,000 MW nuclear power by 2020. He claimed that the country was producing one lakh MW power and can definitely add another 20,000 MW through other sources.

He said the Left was conscious of the problems of re-working the deal once it was signed and was asking the Congress not to operationalise it by not negotiating the safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency  and discussing with the NSG.

Bardhan said the party was prepared to discuss the deal in Parliament and stressed that most MPs were opposed to the deal.

On the assembly elections in Gujarat, Bardhan said the time was right for the removal of Narendra Modi. He said the secular parties should unite to remove Modi from power. He added that the Congress should refrain from infighting and should combine forces with secular parties to oust Modi.

‘We can access dual-use tech in 123’

Mumbai, PTI: Apprehensions among Indian scientists that the country might not get access to dual-use technologies after the signing of the civil nuclear deal with the US are unfounded, says Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Mr Anil Kakodkar.

Scientists in various institutions, including the Department of Atomic Energy, have pointed out that they have been working under a technology denial regime for the past 33 years and were concerned over the continuing non-availability of dual-use technologies as there is no timeframe mentioned in the draft 123 for obtaining such know-how.

Allaying these fears, Mr Kakodkar, who was closely involved in the negotiations on the draft 123 agreement, told PTI that as far as imported reactors are concerned, there is no hurdle for getting dual-use technologies as they will be automatically under international safeguards.

The scientists were also critical of the the fact that the agreement did not provide any time-line for amendments to the US Atomic Energy Act to remove hurdles for the supply of dual-use technologies to India.

Mr Kakodkar said the pact provided for amendments to the US law to allow fuel supply, reprocessing and enrichment for the civil nuclear programme, but research institutions would be allowed to get such technology only on a case-by-case basis to ensure the know-how is not used in India’s strategic programmes.

Getting permission on a case-by-case is time consuming and there were expectations that the pact would provide for easier access to dual-use technologies, which unfortunately has not been done in the agreeement, the scientists said.

Mr Kakodkar, however, sought to play down these apprehensions, saying that there was a “positive sentiment” and that once the amendments were made to the US law, there should not be any problem in accessing dual-use technologies.