Prakash Karat

Karunanidhi

New Delhi, June 21: The CPM today attacked one of the government’s key arguments for the nuclear deal as a “disinformation campaign” and Prakash Karat fixed a meeting with M. Karunanidhi in Chennai tomorrow to explain the Left’s position.

The Left parties are also in touch with Samajwadi Party leaders to try and ensure that Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party doesn’t end up siding with the government on the deal.

Samajwadi leaders had yesterday hinted they might consider bailing the Centre out if a request for talks came from the Congress.

“We are in talks with UPA allies and other parties to explain our position that this deal is not in the interest of the country,” a Left leader said.

Karat will accompany CPI national secretary D. Raja, who has already met Karunanidhi two days ago, to tomorrow’s talks with the DMK chief.

The CPM today attacked the government’s arguments linking the energy crisis and oil prices to the nuclear deal.

“The Congress leadership and the UPA 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,” a statement from the CPM said.

The government’s argument that the deal is linked with energy security “is not founded in fact and amounts to a campaign of disinformation by the Congress leadership”, central committee member Nilotpal Basu said.

“This is a garb for promoting strategic ties with the US. 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 our oil consumption.”

The CPM leader from Bengal added: “More than 50 per cent of India’s oil consumption is in the transport sector — cars, buses and trucks — and the rest in petrochemi-cals and fertilisers. Only a negligible amount is used in the power plants. Nuclear energy has very little to do with oil.”

His party statement 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.”