Nuke deal 'suspect': Former SC judge

NEW DELHI: Terming the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal as "suspect", a former Supreme Court judge urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to investigate with profound care its "perilous possibilities".

Justice V R Krishna Iyer also asked Singh to consider with "anxiety" the dependence on nuclear power as a major source of energy.

"From the government's angle kindly enquire and discover the grave human hazards of radiation before you finalise on a policy of borrowing from the US raw material for building up our energy estate," he said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

Iyer contended that the potential of wind energy and tidal power has not been exploited. He also noted that the hydro-electric energy source was enormous.

"We have not made a national survey of our vast hydro-electric resource and its imaginative utilisation through rural generation sans environmental injury," he said.

Among the grave dangers of the deal, according to Iyer, are the American inspections (of India's nuclear facilities), accessibility of dual use technology as well as the impact on independent foreign policy.

"... freedom of action and non-aligned judgement as a sovereign nation are intangible to superficial observers but latently terrible for those who know Big Power stratagems," he said.

Maintaining that his statement against the "suspect" treaty was not induced by "hostility" to the US, Iyer said "being the sole super power, Washington can pressurise us into obedience to its policy, a situation which militates against our anti-imperialist, pro-socialist vision and values."