By IANS
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that there was no pressure on India against signing an agreement with Russia on the supply of four additional nuclear reactors for a facility in Tamil Nadu.
“This is false propaganda,” a combative Manmohan Singh said, while intervening in a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the India-US civilian nuclear deal.
The response came after Bharatiya Janata Party (MP) Yashwant Sinha charged that the deal for the Russian reactors was not signed during the prime minister’s visit to Moscow last month due to US pressure.
“We had the draft of the agreement ready. It has always been understood that the agreement could be operationalised only after the approval of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” Manmohan Singh said.
“The Russians fully understood this,” he added, even as he depreciated the “false propaganda” on the issue “here and outside”.
Terming the pact with the US a “good deal”, Congress MP and spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said it would “unlock the universe” for India and “turn us from pariahs to an international player” in nuclear commerce.