New Delhi, June 21
The CPM has accused the Congress and the UPA government of mounting “a massive disinformation campaign” to justify the Indo-US nuclear deal.
The party issued a statement here today stating that, “The Indo-US nuclear deal is not about India’s energy security.”
It said, “Energy security lies in using indigenous energy resources such as coal and ensuring our future energy supplies from Iran and other countries in West and Central Asia.”
The CPM argued, “Obviously, augmenting indigenous coal production, investing in oil exploration, securing gas supplies through Iran gas pipeline are much more important for India’s energy security than buying imported reactors and importing uranium for such nuclear plants.”
It said, “Energy security does not lie in helping a moribund US nuclear industry to sell us billions of dollars of reactors, which nobody is buying in the US.”
It said, “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 CPM alleged.
The party claimed that, “As it is difficult to promote India-US strategic ties directly, therefore
the recourse to false claims that nuclear energy will at one stroke reduce not only our oil consumption but also remove our power
shortages.”
It claimed that since the bulk of oil imports were consumed by the transport sector, the augmentation of nuclear energy would in no way help in easing the import of crude oil “unless the government experts have found a new way to burn uranium directly in cars and buses!”
It pointed out that “On the other hand, natural gas from Iran would insulate India substantively from the oil price shocks.” It added, “The government has been dragging its feet over the Iran gas pipeline project at the behest of the US and in consideration of the Hyde Act.”
The CPM conceded that “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 regretted that “the government has also been highlighting a temporary shortage of uranium fuel and painting it as a permanent one. The government, either deliberately or through a failure of planning, did not invest in expanding the existing uranium mines or opening new mines. Worse, it also closed one of the existing mines. The Atomic Energy Commission has made it clear that we have enough uranium for 10,000 MW of installed capacity against the current capacity of only about 4,000 MW. 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 CPM statement concluded.
