London: Ahead of next week's talks with the Left on the stalled Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, the UPA Government has said that it hoped that national interest will prevail and it will be able to persuade its allies who have reservations on the deal to go ahead with it.
"The Indo-US civil nuclear deal by overwhelming public opinion is regarded as preeminently in the national Interest," Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar said.
Noting that the UPA-Left Co-ordination Committee would meet in New Delhi on the May 28, Kumar, who had earlier served as Additional Solicitor General of India, hoped for a 'better picture and understanding of the situation' after the meeting".
"I hope that interlocutors of the government will be able to persuade our allies, who have reservations on the deal to go ahead with it," the minister said on Monday evening.
Kumar said, "It is just incomprehensible why this is being objected to keeping in mind the demands for clean energy, consistent with India's commitment with the Millennium Development Goals and the requirement of an economy on the high growth trajectory."
"It is generally believed and in my personal opinion, rightly so, this is the best deal that we could have negotiated," he added.
Noting that if the deal has to go through, it has to be cleared very soon, Ashwani Kumar, who represented India at the World Economic Forum at Davos, last year, said, "I am an optimist. It is my fond hope that national interest will prevail."
Kumar also said that if the deal comes through, then India’s nuclear isolation would be eradicated and it would enable the scientists to optimally use the domestic capabilities to obtain additional sources of energy for the economic growth.
"We are told that if the deal goes through, by 2025 we could have 20,000 megawatts of additional nuclear power as against about 3,700 megawatts of nuclear power which we have been able to produce since independence.”
The nuclear deal is virtually in cold storage because of stiff opposition by the Left parties.
Firming up of the safeguards agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is a crucial step for implementation of the nuclear deal.
Four Left parties, which provide crucial outside support to the Congress-led government, are strongly opposed to the nuclear deal, insisting that it will undermine the country's sovereignty and strategic nuclear programme.
The UPA-Left committee, set up to resolve the differences, has met seven times since November last year but the government has been unable to convince them. The last meeting was held on the 6th of May.
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