By IANS
New Delhi : The majority in parliament may be criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, but Congress president Sonia Gandhi has stood behind him like a rock.
In a letter to Congress workers, Gandhi has pointed out that the 123 agreement between New Delhi and Washington would be advantageous to the country.
“… India and the US have signed a historic 123 agreement that lifts the decades-old embargo against nuclear trade with India. This will allow India to expand its energy sector to meet the growing demands of our economic growth and put an end to the power shortages that we are all familiar with,” she said.
“It will help us expand power generation for our agricultural sector and our growing industrial sector.”
Gandhi congratulated Manmohan Singh and his team for bringing home an “agreement that is in the long term in the interest of India”. The letter was published in the latest issue of party journal Sandesh.
She pointed out that parliament, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies, the Left parties as well as the opposition parties have been kept informed about the deal throughout the negotiations with the US.
“We have negotiated with America keeping our national interest in the forefront and India’s nuclear defence programme has been in no way undermined. The agreement is a recognition of the achievement of India’s scientists who have worked diligently to keep our indigenous programme alive,” the letter said.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left allies that support Manmohan Singh’s coalition government from outside have opposed the nuclear pact and have threatened serious consequences if the government went ahead with it.
The stand-off between the government and the Left over the deal was eased last week when both sides decided to set up a committee to address the concerns expressed by the communists over the deal.