No future without nuclear energy, says Manmohan
NEW DELHI: Prime minister Manmohan Singh kept the Indo-US nuclear pact very much in the public eye on a day when his foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, is in Washington and scheduled to meet president George W Bush.
Without referring to the controversial civil nuclear agreement, Singh spoke of the need to develop nuclear power to widen India’s energy basket. One of the main arguments put out by the government for the nuclear deal with the US is to meet the country’s growing energy requirements. The 8% or more growth projected for the next few years cannot take place without an energy mix that includes environmentally-clean nuclear power.
The nuclear deal will be on top of Mukherjee’s agenda when he meets Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. How the UPA government proposes to take the deal forward with its Left allies in no hurry to catch the July- end US deadline, is not known. Mukherjee will brief the US leadership on the domestic political situation and try to find out how far Washington can push the deadline.
“Our government is committed to the development of nuclear energy both as an environment-friendly source of power and as a means of widening the energy basket available to us,” the prime minister said after laying the foundation stone of the 1,500-MW Pragati Phase-III Gas Power Project at Bawana in the capital on Monday.
He said the country did not have the luxury of depending on just one or two resources. “While some sources of energy may be cheap today, we have to think for the future generation,” he said.
“Our energy needs are bound to grow. We will be failing in our duty to our nation and to posterity, if we do not look ahead and take steps not just for today or tomorrow but for our future generation,” Singh said. Last year in parliament the prime minister had said it was for future generations to judge if his government’s decision to bring India out of nuclear isolation was the right thing to do. Clearly, the UPA government thinks so, but is unable to convince its Left allies.
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