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Nuclear deal will not fix energy ills: Yechury

Kolkata: That the India-U.S. nuclear deal will be “a panacea for all our energy ills is a big hoax,” Sitaram Yechury, member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said here on Thursday.

Addressing an interactive session with city industrialists, he said: “The question is, at what time you make this shift [to nuclear energy] and at what cost,” Mr. Yechury said.

It was imperative that other sources of energy like hydro, coal and gas be tapped more effectively to meet the energy requirements. The cost per megawatt for generating energy from these sources was far less than from nuclear energy and the money spent on the latter could instead be used for education, health and infrastructure.

The cost per megawatt of electricity generated from imported nuclear reactors would be around Rs. 11 crore against Rs. 3 crore from other sources.

“Why do you want to give this money to companies for nuclear reactors? How will industry react to paying such a cost?” he asked. Mr. Yechury referred to the Hyde Act in which the nuclear deal was anchored and said: “We do not think India should be a strategic ally of the U.S. and that our foreign policy should be changed to suit it.”

On the question of the rising inflation rate he came down hard on the United Progressive Alliance government for “barking up the wrong tree” and failing to contain speculation in trade that was largely fuelling it.

“Containing inflation by restricting liquidity [in the economy] is a flawed theory”, Mr. Yechury said.

“If inflation has be tackled there is need for the government to put certain restrictions on forward trading in essential commodities,” he said.

“The global impact of rising prices on India cannot be an excuse for not doing anything,” the CPI(M) leader added.

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