Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of misleading the nation on clean waiver for import of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) nuclear technology.

“The parliament as well as the nation was misled by the prime minister when he said that India has got a clean waiver. It was not a clean waiver,” CPI-M leader Basudeb Acharia said, demanding a statement from Manmohan Singh on “why were we told time and again that waiver would be clean”.

As per the latest decision of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, India cannot access sensitive nuclear technology, Acharia said in the Lok Sabha.

He said the Left parties had at the time of the India-US nuclear deal pointed out that India would not be able to access enrichment and re-processing technology.

“But we were told a number of times in this house - the prime minister time and again told us - that the waiver was full and complete. But the US had clearly barred the technology being transferred to India. The government, at that time, claimed that exemption from the NSG will enable India to access such technology from other countries,” he said.

The CPI-M leader asserted that after the latest decision of the NSG, India won’t be able to access such technology even from other countries.

“As a result of this, the apprehension expressed by us at that point of time, that we will not be able to have that technology and will not be able to reach the third phase of the nuclear technology, holds good.

“If we cannot reach the third phase we will not be able to utilise thorium. We have abundant reserves of thorium in our country but we will not be able to reach the third phase,” he said.

The veteran communist said the US had never committed to export such technology to India.