The Communist Party of India - Marxist on Saturday accused the government of mounting a 'massive disinformation campaign to promote a bad nuclear deal', which was only a cover to promote strategic ties with the United States.
"The Congress leadership and the United Progressive Allaince government are propagating that the Indo-US nuclear deal is absolutely essential for India's energy security. A massive disinformation campaign has been mounted that nuclear energy is a solution not only to the shortage of electricity in the country but also an answer to the oil price rise. This is nothing but a cover to promote the strategic ties with the US," the CPI-M Politburo said in a statement.
The government wanted the deal as it was difficult to promote Indo-US strategic ties directly, "therefore the recourse to false claims that nuclear energy at one stroke will reduce not only our oil consumption but also remove our power shortages."
The party also accused the government of dragging its feet on the Iran gas pipeline project 'at the behest of the US and in consideration of the Hyde Act'.
Maintaining that the Indo-US nuclear deal was not about India's energy security, the Left party said, "Mythical energy claims are being made in order to promote a bad nuclear deal. Energy is just a cover. The real intent is India-US strategic ties."
The CPI-M said that energy security could be achieved by using indigenous resources, like coal, and 'ensuring our future energy supplies from Iran and other countries in West and Central Asia'.
The CPI-M also sought to ridicule government claims that nuclear energy would reduce the country's oil consumption.
"Nuclear energy has very little to do with oil it cannot be used as a substitute for oil; unless the government experts have found a new way to burn uranium directly in cars and buses," the party statement said.
It claimed that natural gas from Iran would insulate the country substantively from the oil price shocks.
It accused the government of highlighting a temporary shortage of uranium fuel as a permanent one. "The government, either deliberately or because of a failure in planning, did not invest in expanding the existing uranium mines or opening new mines," it claimed.
"It appears that the spectre of uranium shortage has been created only to push a deal that is not in India's national interest," the CPI-M statement said.
It claimed that the cost of electricity from nuclear power plants would be more than double that from coal-fired plants.
"The quickest and cheapest way to remove the current electricity shortages is to build coal-fired plants, which take half the time required by nuclear power plants.
"Nuclear energy has an important place in India's energy option and this route needs to be kept open for the future. However, this should be based on our indigenous technology and our indigenous resources to ensure energy security," it said.
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