Nuclear Thread - 3

[acharya]

Govt. to seek national support for nuke deal: Ashwani Kumar

New Delhi (PTI): With the government readying itself for a trust vote in Parliament, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar on Friday said the UPA will seek wide national support for the India-US nuclear deal.

"We seek widest possible support for the deal. We are going to prove our majority in Parliament," Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of an All India Management Association function here.

The government is "talking to all political parties" to garner support for the deal, Kumar said a day after the text of the India-specific IAEA safeguard agreement was made public.

Addressing the AIMA members, Kumar said there was "overwhelming support" for the nuclear energy agreement with the US.

"We see overwhelming support and the nation will rise above the partisan line accepting it as a national project", he said.

On the Left charge that the UPA government was tilting its policies towards the US, Kumar said, "We never compromised on our foreign policy".

Referring to inflation which has reached close to the 12 per cent mark, Kumar said the government's priority is to stabilise prices. "Cement prices are falling, we would like them to stablise," he said.